Starkville hosts ‘Making Main Merry’ to decorate downtown area

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Whether you’ve already got your tree up, or you’re just starting to think about Thanksgiving plans, Starkville is “Making Main Merry.”

Making Main Merry is a community-wide decorating event to bring the community together and get everyone involved in dressing up Downtown.

Starkville Main Street Director Paige Watson said the decorations are great for local businesses. So far this year, people have not been buying Christmas gifts as early as they have in past years.

“We have had more and more people in the past tell us we look more and more like a hallmark town during Christmas,” Watson said. “We get a lot of night traffic, people just come to ride by and see everything, all the light just look so good together. We hope that this gives us some really good economic boost in December and into this later part of November.”

This year, Reeds is the sponsor of “Making Main Merry.”

The president of Reed’s, Bo Summerford, said foot traffic downtown increases this time of year, especially when the decorations come out.

“It just makes the atmosphere on main just that much more enticing to get out on foot, and just walk around and see all the cool shops Starkville has to offer,” Summerford said.

Summerford says shopping local is at the forefront of everyone’s mind this season.

“Local businesses are what do this, if you support us, we support the community,” Summerford said. “Mr. Reed always used to say, ‘What’s good for the community, is good for the store.’ We just like to give back, and we can do that if people shop local.”

Director of Retail Operations at Mississippi Eyewear Tabitha Stewart says not only is it good for business, but it allows the employees to take pride in the place they work.

“I like to see everybody come together to support each other and support each other’s businesses, but also just come together as a team to make Starkville beautiful,” Stewart said.”

“Creating that community engagement gets more and more people into the spirit. It’s one of my favorite community events for sure,” Watson said.

This year, 60 volunteers helped decorate the town which is the most Making Main Merry has ever had.

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