Excitement abounds for this year’s Russellville Christmas Open House. The Logan County Chamber of Commerce, the City of Russellville and Logan County Tourism have been working to make sure that proves to be an exciting, pleasurable and profitable day for both businesses and shoppers.
Russellville ‘s small business community will be on festive display Sunday from 1-5 p.m. with one of the largest numbers of holiday open houses ever open for shopping, visiting and getting ready for the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.
For half a century or more, this event has been held on the Sunday afternoon before Thanksgiving. Since November 2024 began on a Friday, the fourth Thursday in November (Thanksgiving’s designated date each year) is the 28th. So, the open houses are on Nov. 24, exactly a month before Christmas Eve.
Jerry White, one of the pharmacists for whom Riley-White Drugs & Healthcare is named, was one of the downtown merchants who started this shop-at-home event many decades ago. Riley-White occupies the entire northside of Carrico Park Square and has been the lynchpin of downtown business most of the time since national giant Wal-Mart began dominating local commerce.
As usual, Riley-White will be one of the stores people will visit most Sunday and that Jerry White and maybe Carroll Riley will be there. Also open will be Sherrie Freeman’s The Shoppe on the Square, which has been in the old Logan County Furniture building on the southeast side of Main Street for decades.
But over the past few years, a number of much smaller shops have opened on Main Street in the Square area, and most of them will be open, too.
Several other businesses will be open Sunday on Fourth, Fifth and Sixth streets, Winter Street, the Bethel Shopping Center, and the outskirts of the city limits.
Logan County Public Library, which has not been open on Sundays since the pandemic hit to start his decade, is inviting patrons to visit there.
Craft/vendor shows will be held in a number of locations. Three big ones are Logan County Tourism Vendor Market at the Historic Old Courthouse on the corner of Winter and Fourth Streets, Christmas Bazaar at the Russellville Recreation Center (old armory), and Christmas Mart @ The Loft on East Fourth Street. Vendors will also be at the Caldwell House and at Southern Sass With Class, both on East Sixth Street, and other locations . Prolific author Algie Ray Smith will be selling and signing his latest book at Fifth Street Finds on East Fifth Street.
Food trucks will include Travelin’ Toms Coffee at 103 South Main and Tweedy and WandaNems Chew & Chat on East Fourth Street in the First Southern National Bank alleyway near the Electric Plant Board.
A list of participants can be seen in the graphic provided by the Chamber shown here.
The Chamber is providing a trolley making routes around town to make it easier for shoppers to get more places. Stops will be at The Loft, Riley White Drugs, the Historic Courthouse, Bethel Shopping Center and Caldwell House.
Meanwhile the Christmas spirit is much more evident in Russellville this year.
For years, the smaller cities in Logan County—Lewisburg, Auburn and the Adairville area at Schochoh—have had popular Christmas parades, but the county seat with many more resources has not. That’s changing. The Russellville Christmas Parade is scheduled Friday, Dec. 6, at 6 p.m.
Russellville Parks and Recreation has made the downtown park and the streetlights in the area festive for years, but it’s obvious that more expense and manpower has gone into the decorations this year. Four magnificent arches are now providing entryways into the oval, and extra-large ornaments adorn the area and adjacent sidewalks.
Mayor Mark Stratton has said the expansion in decorations comes as a tribute to the late Glenda Boisseau-Massey, a 25-year city employee in Parks and Recreation, who died in the late summer this year. She was an events planner and was in charge of parks’ decorations. She would have thoroughly enjoyed having these extra decorations to work her magic, Stratton believes.