WHAT HAPPENED TO CHRISTMAS ON MAIN STREET?

In 2014, organisers said the move to De Castro Street was temporary. Twelve years later, why the fair never returned to Main Street is still unclear.

Nobody heading to Christmas on Main Street in December 2013 had much reason to think it would be the last one. The Lashing Dogs played, schoolchildren performed at Sir Olva Georges Plaza, and hundreds of people came out. Even a year later, when the booths went up on De Castro Street, the woman heading the organising committee told the public, “we are not in this location permanently.” 

That was City Manager Janice Brathwaite-Edwards speaking on the opening night of the 2014 fair, during  Dr. Orlando Smith’s NDP administration. Her explanation made sense. Main Street had accommodated 42 booths the year before. De Castro Street had room for 56, with more space for children’s activities and enough room for people to stop and buy something without holding up everybody behind them. 

Four years later, even the Government was still calling it “Christmas on Main Street (relocated to DeCastro Street)” in an official notice. Then, in 2019, proposed traffic changes made De Castro Street harder to close. That prompted another public explanation and eventually another move. The fair went to the Central Administration Complex in 2020 and Shore Way Drive in 2021. Somewhere in there, Christmas on Main Street became Christmas in the City. 

So when did we find out it was never going back? That’s the part missing from the public record. The City Manager never promised a date for a return. Still, people heard that the move was temporary. If Main Street had been ruled out entirely, the public could have reasonably expected that update. Did organisers ever revisit it? Or did everybody get on with planning the next December until, after a while, nobody thought there was anything left to announce? 

This matters because, for plenty of us, this was how you knew Christmas was here. Some places get a first snowfall. In the Virgin Islands, you’d turn onto Main Street and hear the fungi Christmas classics playing down the stretch. There were warm lights, decorations all along the street and a tart on every corner, in every flavour. You could spend most of the night shopping your way down, stop for food and catch the entertainment before making it to the big Christmas tree on the Waterfront.

Some people will tell you the narrow street was part of the appeal. There’s something to that. You had to walk a little further to see what was there, and chances were you’d run into somebody along the way. Christmas in the City still draws people out, even in the rain. However, when people say “we might pass through” Christmas in the City it  leaves the rest of the evening open. When somebody asked what you were doing and you said “Christmas on Main Street,” that was the plan for the night. 

Maybe people would have understood a permanent move for the same reasons they understood a temporary one. They still deserved to hear it.