Lately the Christmas holiday seems to arrive right after a family finishes its turkey during the Thanksgiving feast. Christmas once again came early for Ravenna when the Ravenna Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the Ravenna Holiday Celebration Midnite Madness last Friday in downtown Ravenna.
“It’s really meant coming home for the holidays in a sense,” Ravenna Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ryann Cline told The Weekly Villager. “A lot of people are home due to Thanksgiving and bringing people together is warm and inviting. It just gets you into that holiday and Christmas spirit and it is positive.”
When Cline first became the Executive Director, the Ravenna Holiday Celebration Midnite Madness was a popular tradition, but the Ravenna Area Chamber of Commerce was not in charge of it. Since her appointment, the event has become the RACC’s responsibility.
“I had seen the hustle and bustle and the community pride and everything that went with it so that first year I was here it really inspired me to want to keep that festivity, the community fun and celebration going as long as we possibly could,” Cline said.
According to Cline, the event has only grown since the RACC started running it and partnered with the Ravenna Balloon A-Fair, which has a Light-Up Parade on Main Street to begin the festivities.
“Everybody can be in the parade themselves as long as they have a light on them in one way shape or form,” Cline noted. “It brings a lot of community members down to watch the parade and watch their family members be in the parade.”
Cline said the parade also helped draw the crowd to the festivities because of the many activities offered by Ravenna and local businesses.
Some of the most popular events were Story Times with Santa and Live Reindeer at the Reed Memorial Library, a Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony on the Courthouse Lawn and photo opportunities with Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.
Vendors and crafters set up shop at the Buckeye Mall and offered activities such as Build-a-Bear booths.
Ravenna High School also contributed an activity by having its civics class, taught by Matthew Wunderle, the Raven boys’ soccer coach, host a virtual scavenger hunt.
“This is the third year they have done something at Midnite Madness because it gives us a little bit more of the history side of what Ravenna is about,” Cline said. “The kids actually put that together themselves and there are a lot of things going on, which was exciting.”
One of the new ideas that Cline was responsible for was the Holiday Raffle, which had local businesses donate items to promote themselves.
“Yes they do donate a raffle item promoting their business but 90% of the time it is to bring awareness of what businesses are out there in the Ravenna community and we count on quite a few people that have donated some really awesome items,” Cline said.
The raffle was not restricted to local businesses and residents were free to also auction off items.
According to Cline, one resident donated an electric guitar set in honor of their brother who passed away last Christmas. Cline added the raffle drawing would not take place until Dec. 7 so people would have enough time to purchase tickets for the items raffled off.
“It is just a good way to win some gifts and become aware and educate yourself of what is truly in Ravenna,” Cline noted. “It is just an awesome time of year to be able to just spread that holiday cheer.”
Another big event was Ravenna’s Honorary Way Ceremony, which honored a good Samaritan from the community who would have a street sign at the corner of the Courthouse Lawn named after them. Ravenna has named two winners each year and this year’s winter recipient was 2014 Ravenna graduate Fallon Schwab-Davis.
“She is truly one of the most selfless, giving and kind-hearted community members that I have come across,” Cline said. “She has donated her time to creating and working alongside different entities. When 2020 was going on, she linked arms with me as well as another business owner to try and put together a video of hope for our Ravenna community while we were all quarantined and that turned out really well.”
With so many activities crammed in one evening, it was once again a surefire way to help Ravenna start celebrating the Christmas holiday.
