Residents gather around a sleigh for photos Wednesday, Nov. 25, during Lights! Lights! The annual festival celebrating the lighting of Christmas lights in downtown Moultrie is usually held on Thanksgiving night, but to spread out the crowds the city held it every night of Thanksgiving week.

MOULTRIE, Ga. – As Thanksgiving week drew to a close, Moultrie retailers had a minute to take stock of the new format for the city’s annual tree lighting. A quick circuit of downtown Monday found merchants mostly positive about the change.

“We did really well. Just about as good as normal,” said Mandy Barton at the counter of the Flossy Peach, one of numerous downtown businesses that opened at 6 p.m. Monday through Thanksgiving night. 

Moultrie’s Canopy of Lights has become an icon of the Christmas season. In a normal year, lighting the canopy would take place Thanksgiving evening in a big spectacle, complete with food vendors and street entertainers. The festival, called “Lights! Lights!,” allows the community to not only enjoy the sights and sounds but support the surrounding merchants.

But with the country gripped in a COVID-19 pandemic since March, city planners felt the need to adjust such annual holiday events that draw large amounts of people. Downtown merchants were open late throughout the week as the city turned on the Canopy of Lights. 

For the Flossy Peach, Barton said those first two days – Monday and Tuesday – were the busiest, and the customer flow was steady throughout the week.

“I like it that way,” she said.

Two other shopkeepers at Forever Southern, Jaycee Perry and Grace Bradley, showed much enthusiasm over how the week went in their boutique.

“We enjoyed it,” they said. 

The store did not open Thanksgiving night, but they believed being open the extra hours for the first part of the week helped their business. Perry and Bradley said as more people found out about what was going on, it made them busier on Tuesday and Wednesday.

And the best part of it all, according to the pair, is when people entered Forever Southern, they were actually shopping. They said sometimes having that one night of activities makes a store like theirs more of a hangout for browsers and socializers.

While things were “O.K.” at the Main Street Galleria Monday through Wednesday, Vickie Thompson said the weekend was “astronomical.” Saturday was also Small Business Saturday, which is celebrated nationally.

“People want to spend money,” said Thompson. “They’ve been shut in so much. They probably had more to spend.”

Thompson did, however, detect a lesser spirit, more sadness, this year, especially since she couldn’t have the kettle corn displays outside the Galleria.

It is only a matter of time — 350-plus days to November 2021 — to see whether Lights! Lights! as Moultrie knows it returns to normal patterns.