Christmas in Converse

Last week the annual event Christmas in Converse celebrated 15 years, with various community businesses and organizations joining the festivities.  

“It’s just a celebration of converse and its businesses. And so, we work to highlight all the wonderful businesses that we have in converse and all the great options that people have when they go into those businesses,” Library Director Andy Horner said.  

The event entailed local businesses opening their doors for exclusive deals and events where people can win prizes.  

“So, for Christmas in Converse tonight, we do free hot cocoa for anyone that wants to come in. We’re also doing $100 gift card giveaway. We’ll have a lot of promotions on like our merchandise. We also hand make all of our own bologna sausages. We smoke our own tallow, so all of those products will be 10% off. We’ll also have smoked lasagna and our white turkey chili tonight as well,” said Jefferson Street BBQ owner Lindsay Baker.  

Baker has had her doors open for this event every year and has seen it grow with people traveling to converse for the event.  

“I mean, some years we’ve seen upwards of like 1000 people through town. So, it’s basically jam packed. Everyone in town can always assume that it will be a busy evening,” said Baker.  

Other activities include a horse carriage, Mrs. Claus reading to kids in the library and tthe lighting of the town Christmas tree. 

 “Now, we actually shut down the street through the business district so that it’s, one, a lot safer for the kids, but two, it’s a lot bigger of an event. We’ve added different things over years. We’ve done bounce houses. We’ve done we one year had an ice-skating rink brought in, and the last two years, we’ve had horse drawn wagon rides throughout town. And so just how can we make this event more fun for the whole family, and hope, hopefully drawing people in,” said Horner.  

Marion resident Monica Nall said she appreciates the safety of the Converse community. 

“There’s nothing better than being able to come together and see people that you know and reconnect with people that you haven’t seen in a while, and also just the safety of letting my kids run down the street and not be concerned about who’s walking next to them, and that kind of thing, because everybody knows everybody,” Nall said.