BIA Christmas Crawl brings out the clue hunters
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Santa Claus arrived in Tillsonburg Friday night for the annual BIA Downtown Tillsonburg Christmas Crawl with a special four-legged friend.
"Prancer," said Santa when asked by a young visitor.
Christmas Crawl participants were encouraged to participate in A Canadian Christmas scavenge hunt, hunting for 10 Canadian clues. Stores set up special tables with treats and offered special sales.
"It has been very busy," said Kara Booth at Fox & Fawn Antiques, Collectibles and Home Decor at 93 Broadway. "It's been great."
Friday's Christmas Crawl was Booth's first, and she was excited to see the number of clue hunters making their way to the back of her store.
Some of her clues were subtle, like a miniature lobster cage, puffin, and sea-related ornaments on a dresser with a Canada 150 T-shirt and mini Canada 150 flag. If that didn't give it away, however, the map of Newfoundland and Labrador might have.
"Newfoundland?" asked one young scavenger hunt participant. "What's up with Newfoundland?"
"That's our clue," her mother smiled.
"So we found it?"
"So that's the end?" another scavenger hunter asked.
"No, we still need one more."
And so the hunt went on. At Escapes Salon and Spa, hunters found the Yukon 'gold', while at Tranquility Spa and Salon, they were were looking for a bowl of delicious cranberries from B.C. Each business on the Christmas Crawl had a clue, and some off Broadway locations had 'bonus' clues that allowed an extra chance to win the prize draw at the end of the night.
"It's been great - we've kind of been keeping track of how many customers we're getting in, and it's at least 200," Booth said, tallying her numbers at 7:40 p.m. Friday, just past the mid point of the 5-9 p.m. event.
"I have a lot of clues back there," Booth smiled. "You should have a look."
Winners of the 2017 colouring contest, sponsored by The Tillsonburg News and Canadian Tire - Tillsonburg were Keith Hietkamp and Ryelen Matthews (3-5 years), Zachary Breman and Meryn Howe (6-8 years), and Connor Marcoux and Genny Marcoux (9-12 years).