KELLOGG — A popular local tradition will unfortunately take 2020 off as Silver Mountain and the Silver Chamber of Commerce have decided to forego the Christmas Lighting Festival.

Annually held on the weekend following Thanksgiving, the event regularly featured various special shopping opportunities, a parade of lights through the town, and then a special tree lighting ceremony complete with hot cocoa, caroling, Santa and fireworks.

While it is unknown what the full plans were for the festival just a few weeks ago, they have since been canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the state of Idaho currently being in modified Stage II under the orders of Gov. Brad Little.

According to Silver Mountain Marketing Coordinator Gus Colburn, “Silver Mountain definitely plans on continuing to host the event once things get back to normal.”

All is not lost though, as the Silver Valley Chamber is still planning on various holiday shopping promotions throughout the community over the coming weeks.

“In order to compensate for that, we are rolling out a Shop Small campaign to highlight local Chamber members and to help increase awareness of what options are available in the Silver Valley,” said Silver Valley Chamber President Tara Lodi. “We want to promote our businesses. There are lots of local options for shopping, as well as gift certificates to purchase to use at (places like) your favorite restaurants, bars and gyms.”