City of Oswego “Home For The Holidays” Weekend Presented During Common Council Meeting

OSWEGO – Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow revealed holiday plans for the City of Oswego during last night’s Common Council meeting, Monday Nov. 23.

The City of Oswego is hosting a “Home for the Holidays” celebration for the weekend of December 4 to 6. The three-day long event will hold a variety of attractions, all venues designed to fit social distancing protocols.

Kicking off the holiday season is the city’s annual tree-lighting ceremony, taking place this Saturday, November 28. The program will start at 5:15 p.m. Due to the pandemic, the event will be live-streamed instead of in-person.

The virtual holiday special will include musical and dance acts, including some fun commercials created by local businesses. The program will conclude at 5:55 p.m. with Mayor Barlow joining Santa on stage for the countdown to the virtual tree lighting at 6 p.m., followed by a fireworks display beginning at 6:10 p.m. over the Oswego River.

The fireworks display will be similar to the Fourth of July gala. A drone will live-stream the fireworks, giving viewers a unique look at the celebratory illuminations from home. The mayor is asking people who want to view the fireworks in person to stay in their cars.

Residents can tune into the City of Oswego YouTube page or Mayor Barlow’s Government Facebook page to watch it live.

“The easiest thing to do would have been cancel the tree lighting, cancel the fireworks – don’t have anything special during the holiday season [and] just coast through and hope this all goes away soon,” Barlow said. “But I think it’s important to maintain the holiday spirit and community spirit and go out of our way to put these events on – just in a different fashion.”

A list of events for the Home for the Holiday weekend is as follows:

• The Christmas List Mailbox is set up in the plaza outside City Hall. Normally, the mailbox is set up inside City Hall, surrounded by a backdrop of holiday decorations. Due to construction and COVID-19 measures, the mailbox is set up outside with festive adornments to make it special.

  

• Santa Roll: The Santa Roll will begin at each fire station, with Santa Claus riding along designated routes waving to children on their porches, lawns, etc. The event will be held on both Friday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 5 with Santa visiting the Westside and Eastside on consecutive days. This fun ceremony will give kids the opportunity to see Santa. The event times and routes will be publicized ahead of time.

• Carriage Rides: The city will offer carriage rides to the public from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Each ride will be a 15-minute excursion throughout the downtown area. The city is asking everyone to pre-register a time slot beforehand to avoid long lines. Each ride can have up to eight people, but no more. To pre-register, please visit the Oswego city website.

• Late night shopping and dining will be available to the public throughout the weekend. The downtown businesses will be offering reduced dining options and storewide discounts to the community throughout the weekend.

• Pop-up shops featuring items from local businesses will be available. The building that formally housed the Oswego College Store located on the corner of West 1^st and Bridge Streets will showcase select merchandise from area stores. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

“This is an effort really, to obviously support local businesses because it’s important to the economy we’re in [during] this turbulent time, but also it’s the safest option to stay local now and avoid the big stores like Destiny USA, and the big box retail stores, particularly on Route 31 – and to stop that travel across the county lines,” Barlow said. “We urge folks to stay local both for the economy and their own health.”

Also during the Mayor’s Report, Barlow took time to remember former Deputy City Clerk Tress McDaid, who passed away Nov. 16. McDaid was a city employee for 24 years, retiring in October 2020.

“She took great pride in her work, she was at the council meetings taking the minutes and helping to run the meetings, and she was always willing to go above and beyond the extra mile in her capacity as Deputy City Clerk,” Barlow said. “She was also just a great person to be around at City Hall, and we’ll certainly miss her. So, I’d like to have a moment of silence in her honor.”

The Council unanimously passed all resolutions included in the agenda. To view the agenda, click here. All Common Council meetings are held the second and fourth Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m.

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