Victorian Stroll evokes holiday spirits

By: Emily Lougee

Staff Writer

Though the weather was dreary, everyone’s spirits seemed high as they wandered through Downtown Troy around the streets full of carolers and people dressed in Victorian Era clothing.

The 36th annual Victorian Stroll hosted by the Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted hundreds of people gathered from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m .on Sunday.

Many local shops, restaurants and vendors took part in making this event a success. Along with the region’s top performers, story-tellers, musicians, dancers and more.

There were attractions going on downtown with Monument Square being a base location for it all with food trucks, tents from local restaurants and music. The atrium hosted an arts and craft show with products from local vendors. Along with Ace Hardware offering fresh cut trees for people all day.

Due to cold and rainy weather, some stores were offering free hot cider to people participating in this event. The MVP Health Care tent offered people a place to warm their hands, free of charge. Along with that, a local fire department was offering people rides on a vintage fire truck while a trolly was giving tours of the historic district.

For people who wanted to experience something different, there were many live musical performances going on throughout the day. A group from RPI played the flute in the Atrium. There were also different groups of carolers singing Christmas classics such as “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls.”

Santa Claus also played Christmas classics on his saxophone in Monument Square.

Plenty of local stores offered specific sales for the event and decorated their storefront windows. Each year local stores can decorate their windows around a theme, this year was “Winter Holidays Around the World.” People could go online to the Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce FaceBook page and vote for their favorite display by 4:30 p.m., Dec. 3.