Hastings Main Street Prepares for a Bigger Holiday Experience

The Hastings Holiday Experience is gaining an unusually large helping of Christmas spirit: artificial trees by the dozens, a 30-foot outdoor tree, glowing displays, reindeer, toy soldiers, Santa figures, wreaths, lights, inflatables and even snow machines.

Thanks to a donation facilitated through Doerr’s Custom Cabinets & Trim, Hastings Main Street has acquired the décor from an entire Christmas festival in Fleming Island. The collection was substantial enough to fill a 24-foot enclosed trailer from floor to ceiling, followed by a second trip for the remaining pieces.

For a small community with big holiday ambitions, the donation offers room to imagine. The items will give Hastings Main Street new ways to create festive displays throughout town and add photo opportunities for families visiting during the December celebrations.

Before any of that can happen, however, the decorations need the practical kind of attention that makes community events possible: unloading, sorting, organizing and safely storing each piece until the holiday season arrives.

Hastings Main Street has planned volunteer workdays at 3 p.m. Monday, September 7, and Sunday, September 13, at the organization’s “Clubhouse,” 138 Main Street. Locals may recognize the building as the former transfer station behind Dollar General.

Volunteers are welcome to contribute whatever time they can, even if it is only an hour or two. The work may be behind the scenes, but it is the first step toward a December landscape filled with familiar holiday scenes—and a few new surprises waiting to be discovered around Hastings.