Steubenville cancels light-up event to avoid a large crowd
STEUBENVILLE -- The Nutcracker Village will return to the downtown area on Nov. 27, but this year they'll be doing things differently.
For starters, there's not going to be a Steubenville Lights Up kickoff.
"With the rising COVID case numbers in our region, we had to (cancel) Lights Up," Historic Fort Steuben Director Paul Zuros said. "Our concern is for our community and the visitors who want to come here and enjoy Nutcracker Village. It's an event that draws a large crowd."
And that crowd is typically shoulder-to-shoulder on Lights Up night, which has become a tradition marked on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, he pointed out.
"You (usually) can't move in the park, it's just packed," he said. "Any other year that's great, but this year, with all the regulations and guidelines for social distancing, mask wearing and hand sanitizing, we just felt it would be very difficult for us to comply."
With a few tweaks, Zuros said they're confident Nutcracker Village will be doable. Among those changes:
¯ The nutcrackers themselves will be socially distanced, with about 50 of them placed at the fort and the rest taking up residence along Fourth and Market streets.
¯ Advent Market will be open every weekend, but with fewer vendor chalets, and the food trucks will move from the fountain area to the parking lot.
¯ Inside the visitors center, the gift shop has been moved and is part of a Christmas Wonderland in the large display room.
While they won't be able to have their Letters to Santa writing station, Zuros said they're working on getting a Santa's Mailbox set up so children will at least be able to drop their letters off.
"Obviously, canceling Lights Up events will reduce the number of people, but we'll still have Advent Market and Nutcracker Village," he said. "We've been telling vendors we don't really know what to expect, but we think response will be good, we think people will be really excited about any event. I just think people are looking to get back to normal."
They'll also offer tours of the fort itself, just as they did last year, and the Land Office will be open.
"Last year was the first year we opened the fort during Nutcracker Village," he said. "It was very successful. We had lots of folks visit, and a lot of them came back during the summer so they could spend more time."
He said Nutcracker Village is a Christmas staple, attracting visitors from throughout the Tri-State Area as well as across the country, and he credited the Nelson family's "imagination and ingenuity" for translating vision into reality.
"We want everybody to come down, but we want them to feel safe -- to know we've done everything we can to comply with the requirements for social distancing, masks and sanitizers. We want to welcome people down here to the fort and Nutcracker Village."