The air is getting colder, the leaves are mostly gone, and the sun sets earlier and earlier. That can only mean one thing: the elves are coming.
Shillito’s Elves to be exact.
Downtown’s jolly holiday residents are set to return to their displays this weekend. The elves have been a presence since the 1950s, when they first appeared in the Queen City’s earliest department store, Shillito’s. The busy little folk can be seen in multiple scenes, including sorting letters to Santa Claus, building gifts in their workshop, and settling into bed after a long day. While their occasionally animated antics have now been moved to the ground-floor windows of Carew Tower, the elves are still a sign that the winter festivities are beginning in Cincinnati – and they don’t come alone.
At 7 a.m. on Nov. 14, this year’s Duke Energy Holiday Tree will arrive at Fountain Square. The 58-foot-tall Norway Spruce is being brought down from Michigan and will come to rest in the southwest corner of the square. The tree will be illuminated later this month during the Light up the Square event on Nov. 27.
“The arrival of the Duke Energy Tree truly signals the launch of the holiday season in downtown Cincinnati,” Christy Samad, 3CDC’s executive vice president of Civic and Commercial Activation, said in a news release.
Winterhaus will also be hosting family-friendly programming from 8 a.m. to noon, including cookie decorating and ornament making.
The celebrations will be capped off at 7 p.m. by the initial lighting of the square’s Tyler Davidson Fountain for the CVG Fountain of Lights display. Cincinnatians can enjoy the light show every 15 minutes until the weather warms up.
For more information on the winter activities coming to Fountain Square, check out the calendar here.
