THOMASVILLE — The return of the annual Victorian Christmas brought a sense of magic to the area as people both near and far attended to bring the event back to life. 

The first day of the 35th annual Christmas celebration saw an estimated 15,000 residents and tourists fill downtown’s brick streets for the festivities.  

“Thursday night was a great success. It was completely packed,” said Madison Eaton, City of Thomasville special events coordinator. 

Friday night was no different with almost all food vendors sold out by the end of the event.

This year’s turnout is a complete turnaround from 2019’s Victorian Christmas which only had an estimated 8,000 people in attendance due to bad weather.

Along with getting to dress up in traditional Victorian Christmas fashions, visitors got to choose from more than 30 vendors to shop from as local merchants pitched in to the holiday fun. 

“It was incredible,” Anna Lee, Imagination Emporium owner, said referring to the crowd of customers who filled her store on both days. “I definitely saw an uptick in sales for the hours of the event.” 

This was Lee’s first time participating as a vendor and she said it won’t be her last. 

For Kelli Barnes, owner of Spence and Lane Boutique, this year was the best Victorian Christmas she’s seen thus far with this year being her seventh year participating. 

“I think because people have been waiting for three years, the anticipation and build up for finally having a real Victorian Christmas was a dream come true for all the retailers,” she said. “We all worked really hard to stock our shelves and make sure that we were ready for everyone coming from different cities.” 

Barnes was surprised to see more tourists this year, with many of her customers coming from as far as Massachusetts.  

“I hope that everyone continues to come back and support local,” she said.  

Victorian Christmas has always been a big opportunity for local merchants and with Cameron Jahnke owning two shops, Relish and the Gift Shop Store, he was grateful for this year’s overwhelming support.  

“It really helps,” he said. “We have a limited time as a retailer to make our season and so Victorian Christmas is important to every retail and restaurant.” 

With Victorian Christmas over, Eaton said she’s gotten a good amount of positive feedback about this year’s event, which would not have been possible without the entire community’s support. 

“It takes an entire village to bring this together. Not only do we rely on the community and tourists to come into the Downtown to make this such a powerful event, but we also rely on the entire city of Thomasville to make this event come together in one hour,” she said. 

Steve and Susan Brown traveled from Florida with their family to experience Victorian Christmas for the first time and will now make it a yearly outing.  

“It was like a Hallmark card is what we felt like we were in. It was really unique,” Steve said. 

This year’s revival of the local tradition’s original feeling makes Eaton confident that next year’s event will be even better. 

“Victorian Christmas is a holiday favorite event that we will continue to improve year to year by adding in new exciting features all while keeping the same traditional aspects that everyone knows and loves,” she said.