There’s good and bad news coming in from Montana Avenue.
The annual Holiday Walk — where merchants pass out cookies, cider (and sometimes even wine) to passersby — will return this year on Saturday, December 4.
But kids hoping to score sweet treats on Halloween will have to wait until next October.
“We are not doing candy or anything like that this year” Jane Walker, owner of Texture and Vice-Chair of the Montana Avenue Merchants Association, told The Sun.
“You don’t want groups. You don’t want people gathered together until things are safer. Maybe next year.”
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The annual Halloween festivities on Montana Avenue usually drive tons of foot traffic into the more than 100 businesses between 6th Street and 17th Street.
This year, Trick or Treaters are invited to have their pictures taken in front of hay bales and cornstalks positioned near some of Santa Monica’s most glamorous shops.
The displays are expected to be installed by the weekend and will remain in place through most of November, according to Heidi Dedrick, Lerchant Liaison for the MAMA.
They will be placed along Montana Avenue at 9th Street (in front of Roosevelt Elementary School), 11th Street (near Ele Keats), Euclid Ave (by Le Macaron) and on 16th Street (close to Williams Sonoma).
“Some (stores) will decorate their windows,” Walker said. “But having those areas where you can take your pictures is very nice.”
Walker is hopeful that conditions will improve before the annual Holiday Walk five weeks later.
“The walk this year will be better than ever,” Dedrick promised. We will be doing more stuff outside and inside. We will have a lot of activities on the street.”
This year’s edition will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to allow shoppers more time to experience the festivities safely.
Some stores will be limiting the number of shoppers permitted indoors, a practice that proved successful at the recent Montana Avenue Art Walk.
“At my store, I only let four people in at a time,” Walker said.
For many years, the Holiday Walk was an evening event.
It will be held during the day partly due to lack of lighting.
“We used to have lights in the trees and it helped illuminate the sidewalks,” Walker said. “Things are still not quite back to normal but we want to make it as festive as possible.”
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