I think most midwestern families would say that December is their busiest month of the year. Between office parties, family events, and the seventeen grocery store trips from forgetting the one thing you need, the month takes a toll. Once New Years is over, almost everyone is ready for a yearlong nap.

But by the time that February rolls around, the day to day starts to even out. The holiday stress has worn off, and hopefully you’ve eaten all your leftovers. (Seriously, if you still have ham in the fridge, it’s time to throw it out.) And since we’ve thrown out the old, we must invite the new into our lives.

New shopping that is.

Just past Valentine’s Day is Main Street Wooster’s first big event of the year, the Winter Shop Hop. This year, the event will be taking place on Saturday, February 18th, and we’re hoping you can spare us a bit of your time for some cozy deals.

If you’re not familiar with the friendly competitive spirit that rests in our downtown, then allow me to explain. While Wooster is known for a great many things, our creative contests are one of the more popular facets of the town.

During the Winter Shop Hop, you’ll want to keep an eye out for some adorable looking penguins. These penguins can come in many shapes and sizes, including wall art, plushies, or anything that can be thought up. Each of them will have a qr code next to them that will enable you to vote for your favorite. The ten stores participating are Nest, Friendtique, Boba Bowl, JK Gift Shop, Roomscapes, E&H Hardware, Flex Yoga, Artfind Tile, Apple Creek Bank, and Catholic Charities of Wayne County. You will only be able to vote up until 5pm on the 18th, so we encourage you to use your vote wisely, and may the best penguin win!

If you don’t find penguins to be adorable, then we must ask, who hurt you? But in complete honesty, we do have more things to entice you with. 

Here at Main Street Wooster, we love to play a challenging game of bingo. Fortunately for the residents of Wooster, this will be the easiest game of bingo ever played.

All it takes to earn your bingo is to buy something from four or five shops. We have twenty-five shops to choose from, so the hardest part of winning will be picking which five you’d like to purchase something from. We have one free space if you’re having an awfully hard time deciding, but all twenty-five shops are ready to mark down your card if you’re ready to play. This bingo card can be printed off Main Street Wooster’s website, so that you can establish an attack plan before you go.

We know we have some overachievers in our lovely town, so we want to make sure you know that you can make more than one bingo if you’d like, but it must be a different row.

For each bingo that you make, you will be entered into a drawing for two downtown dollar gift cards. Our two winners will each be receiving a gift card worth 100 dollars!

If you’d like to be entered into a drawing that rewards you for supporting small businesses, we must warn you that we need them by February 20th. Any cards delivered after that time will have to go in the trash with the moldy leftovers.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a downtown event without any discount sales. Friendtique and Nest have 30% off. If you spend 100$ at Flex Yoga, you get an additional 15$ in Flex cash. Single accessories at Roomscapes have a 15% discount. JK Gift Shop has a spin to win with any purchase. If you spend 30 dollars at Mott’s Oil and More, then you earn a free bread dipping seasoning tin. Blackbird Records and Operation Fandom have some in store specials that you don’t want to miss. Kitschy Koo Boutique is offering 15% off all regular priced items. Jodi’s Closet is having a store wide sale. Cookie Snob is giving everyone a dollar off for a dozen penguin cookies, and for the finale, Boba Bowl has truly embraced the penguin invasion by creating a new drink just for the event!

Penguins, shopping, and possibly winning some downtown dollars. What more could you want from a spectacular Wooster Saturday?