Downtown Salem is a special place –  home to top notch retail as well as an amazing restaurant scene, in a city full of rich history and local events for all ages. Salem Main Streets contributes a great deal to ensuring that downtown Salem remains a vibrant, year-round, retail, dining, and cultural destination. While Salem prides itself on having five seasons (winter, spring, summer, fall, and October), it takes a lot of thoughtful work to try to make sure that all twelve months of the year in downtown Salem are sustainable for our businesses, welcoming to our visitors, and mindful of our residents.  This is why we need your help.

Salem Main Streets continues to contribute a vast variety of services to the local community, but we feel like we could do so much more. Our nonprofit organization, and the community as a whole, would benefit greatly from us having the available funds to create an additional part-time staff position to complement our one full-time staff member, but that requires a jump in our organizational budget to be sustainable.  It is also important to us that the majority of our events and services remain free to the downtown community.

We estimate that every $100 donated to Salem Main Streets translates to roughly two hours of work invested into our local community. It may not seem like a lot, but with the added hours, a lot can be accomplished.  Two hours is what it takes to set up the Salem Farmers’ Market every week before it is visited by over 2,000 eager consumers.  Two hours is the length of our New Years Eve LAUNCH! event, where our community rings in the new year together at Old Town Hall. The 250+ local storefronts we serve are essential to the health of downtown Salem, so we try to spend a minimum of two hours every week checking in with them.  We can get a lot done in two hours, but there never seems to be enough of them – imagine what we could do with more! Become a Friend of Salem Main Streets today with a tax-deductible donation.

In addition to individual donations, SMS also has sponsorship opportunities to get your business in front of an engaged local audience. Sponsors can enjoy chatting about their services with shoppers at the Farmers Market, or hand out swag at the Ice Scream Bowl, or have an ice sculpture of their choice at Salems So Sweet. Recent collaborations, like working with our partners at Creative Collective on the Salem Arts Festival, mean that your sponsorship will be recognized more effectively to a broader audience than ever before. Find out more about becoming a sponsor!

Your assistance and donations truly help bring Salem to life. As we reflect on a great year and look forward to the next, it is more apparent than ever that our nonprofit is going to need more resources to keep impacting positive change in the downtown. Donating to SMS or sponsoring our work will help in the effort to keep our astonishing and unique downtown area vitalized for many seasons to come. Thank you for being a part of what makes our community so special.

The holidays are here, and Salem is dressed for the season with trees, wreaths, and ribbons. To top it off, over 30 downtown businesses have decorated their windows especially for the holidays.  Judges nominated by Salem Main Streets made the rounds early this week to vote on the best windows.

“We had some truly fantastic windows this year, as always,” said Kylie Sullivan, Salem Main Streets Executive Director. “We give the judges the freedom to create new award categories based on what they see each particular year – but even then, we didn’t manage to squeeze in all the windows we loved!”

Some award categories highlight good retail design – use of store products or display of a business’ services – or types of design, like most traditional. The Contest Newcomer recognizes businesses with high quality displays who have not previously or regularly participated in the contest. A “Salem Main Streets Shout-Outs” category was also created this year for businesses that ended up on several judges’ final lists and were deserving of recognition.

“I was especially impressed by how much work and detail went into so many of this year’s windows,” said Sullivan. “I encourage everyone to take their time and look closely at the competing windows to see how many fine details went into the trees and tableaus.”

A full set of images can be found online at https://bit.ly/2AZDaRJ. 

Best Overall: Mark Your Spot

            Honorable Mention – Witch City Wicks and Witch Pix

Best Use of Product: Witch City Consignment & Thrift

            Honorable Mention – Pamplemousse and Modern Millie Shop

Best Traditional: Turner’s Seafood

            Honorable Mention – Remember Salem and LightShed Photography

Contest Newcomer: Grace & Diggs and Vampfangs

Salem Main Streets Shout-Outs: Coon’s Card and Gifts, The Happy Sunflower, and Emporium 32

Salem is known for being a famous destination during Halloween season, but the breadth and depth of retail in the downtown district also make it the ideal destination for your holiday shopping. Salem Main Streets works with local partners and businesses to encourage local shopping opportunities all season long. From established brick and mortar storefronts to artisan products at holiday markets, you can find a range of options for everyone on your list!               

Everyone knows that the weekend after Thanksgiving is when people’s holiday shopping starts going into overdrive, and this is especially true in downtown Salem. On Saturday, November 24, between 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Salem Main Streets is partnering with the Salem Chamber of Commerce to organize Salem’s annual Small Business Saturday event. Small Business Saturday is part of the “Shop Small” movement initiated by American Express to encourage holiday shoppers to shop local on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We are tracking a list of various promotions and discounts that local businesses will be offering all across town, so be sure to check!

If you missed our first Salem Winter Market, don’t fret – we’ll be back again in December! To help kick off the holiday shopping season, the Salem Winter Market, which is a seasonal extension of the Salem Farmers’ Market, gives community members and tourists alike access to over 20 different vendors. Some of the vendors will be familiar faces, and some of them are new to this event, but rest assured, they all want to help you prepare for Thanksgiving and the busy holiday season. The December market will take place on Saturday, Dec. 15^th between 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Old Town Hall, which is located on 32 Derby Square.         

The holiday festivities don’t end there for the business district. Salem Main Streets will be hauling out the holly very seriously this year on the first weekend of December. If you are around on Saturday, December 1^st, you will likely see a hardy group of SMS and Beautification Committee volunteers out climbing lampposts to hang 100 wreaths and wrap almost 200 poles with festive red ribbon. In addition, the first weekend of December will serve as the kickoff for Salem Main Streets’ annual Holiday Window Contest. Over 30 storefronts participate annually, and the SMS judges will be making the rounds on Sunday, Dec. 2^nd to decide which business has the best windows. The competition for this contest can get fierce, but the result is a business community that resonates with a festive holiday spirit. And if you are also enjoying Christmas in Salem, Historic Salem’s beloved historic house tour, don’t forget that some businesses are offering promotions to anyone with a Christmas in Salem program book!

As you can see, Salem is a shopper’s paradise during the holiday season. The city is host an incredible scene featuring numerous innovative businesses that you just don’t find at your local mall. There is a reason Salem is considered to be the hotspot in the North Shore. Come down to join us at one or all of our fantastic shopping events, and you can find out why.