July 16, 2026

Celebrating the Holidays Downtown

Holiday activities transform commercial districts into vibrant destinations, encouraging residents to shop, dine, and spend locally.

Some of the most important elements in a holiday celebration are festive decorations, enticing shop windows, and a wide range of unique and tempting gifts.

To fill vacant storefronts and add to the range of holiday shopping, many downtowns turn to pop-up shops.

In Colorado Springs, CO, the Downtown Partnership has run a holiday pop-up program for many years. The initiative opens downtown spaces to merchants who want to capitalize on Christmas shopping.

Retailers must sign a two-month lease for November and December, and they must agree to market their stores.

During the Holiday Pop-Up Shop program’s first four years, a combined 50 retailers took advantage of short-term leases.

Portland, OR, offers a similar pop-up program for the holidays. PDX Pop-Up Shops fill vacant downtown space from mid-November to late December. Portland debuted its program in 2009. Over the years, several vendors have had so much success that they opened permanent locations.

More on celebrating the holidays downtown appears regularly in Downtown Idea Exchange newsletter.

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Recommended Reading

Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

"Startup communities" are popping up everywhere, in large cities, towns, and even in rural areas. These networks of people and organizations are driving innovation, small business growth, and local economic development.

Now, Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City provides a framework and tools to create a startup community in virtually any city.

Based on more than twenty years of experience in Boulder, CO, as well as contributions from other innovative startup communities, this important book will show you:

• The core principles of a vibrant startup community
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• The importance of a college or university in a startup community
• How large companies can engage effectively with entrepreneurs
• The opportunities to build startup communities in non-urban, or rural, places.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems can provide the resources and conditions for startup success downtown.

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Startup Communities is just one of the many books on Economic Development available from the Downtown Development Center.