Wilmore KY November 2020

 We stopped by Wilmore Kentucky late last year....  a great little town!  Here is a video I put on youtube about it!

I've mentioned it before a few times, here, here, and here.

Wilmore Kentucky

A few days after the Wilmore Old Fashioned Christmas Event, we went back to the town just to explore the shops on a normal Saturday.

There are several very nice little small independent shops.  They are all worth checking out.  We found some nice gifts.  I found several cute local themed stickers!

We wanted to make a point to patronize the Solomon's Porch, a small coffee/lunch place in town that I mentioned before.  They recently had a situation where a car ran in to their building and caused some serious damage.

They are still open and functioning.  We had some nice sandwiches and enjoyed the atmosphere.

WE also picked up a couple of groceries at the IGA in town too.  It reminds me of the one I used to go to with my mom in Owensboro when I was young.  I had a few friends in high school that worked there too before it folded.

Wilmore Old Fashion Christmas in Kentucky!

Several years ago, some friends invited me out to Wilmore’s big Christmas party known as “Wilmore’s Old Fashioned Christmas”.  We had a great time, and I have wanted to go back for some time.

 Each year, however, I found myself busy on the first Saturday of December so I couldn’t go.  Well, this year I made sure that I was able to make it!

 Wilmore is a very attractive small town anyway, but when they go all out for Christmas, it really becomes something special.

 We didn’t get to see their parade or anything, as we did get there a little late, but we did get to walk among the crowd and visit the various businesses.

 We got to town a bit late too, and we had to search for a scarce parking spot.  We found one quickly.  AND, finding parking in Wilmore, even during this crowded event was not that big of a deal.

 Our first stop was the town IGA.  A friend went with us who estimated that they have attended a dozen or so of these events said we should go there first.  The good people there were handing our small cracker sandwiches and pop!  Each time one was handed out, a “Merry Christmas” was exchanged.  It was very sweet, cheerful and festive.

 AND, at the front of the store was a great country band!  They were doing Cash as we left.  I would have loved to have stuck around and listened, but my friends wanted to explore more.

 After that we stopped at a bank and found another great band playing.  More treats were handed out by very sweet locals.

 Other places were handing out different snacks, all given freely with no expectation of purchase or anything.

 We went into City Hall and Elvis was there!  He was entertaining anyone visiting City Hall.  This was the same Elvis we saw earlier in the year performing in Danville at Pioneer Playhouse.  He was nailing it in his authentic King gear.

 My mother in law went with us.  Elvis started singing directly to her and we all had a great laugh over it!  As a side note, I have always been a huge Elvis fan and I love getting to see a great Elvis tribute.

We also went inside of a small religious reading room/prayer room location.  A wonderful young lady was singing and playing the piano.  Like the other musicians I have mentioned I would have really enjoyed getting to see more of her set.

The music alone here was exceptional.  There were at least four acts performing this night that I would love to see on another day when I could stick around for a full performance.

 As we walked around, we found some interesting businesses that we will have to check out on another day!  The small town looks to have TWO quality coffee shops!

 One beautiful old church was open for visitors to walk through.  In addition to having some very ornate windows worth seeing on their own, the church was displaying some privately collected nativity scenes.  I love miniatures like this, and I really enjoyed seeing them!

 There was a very sweet lady hosting visitors at the church.  We really enjoyed talking to her.  Her husband was outside the church handing out cups of hot chocolate!

 As the evening winded down, we made our way to the large church for their service to end the evening, which was very musical and fun.

If I heard correctly, there have been 31 “Wilmore Old Fashioned Christmas” events.  During this service, a show of hands was asked for of people who had been to all of them.  I did see some hands raised!

 Also, the collection plate was passed only once during the service.  It was passed to collect donations to help out a small local business that had something bad happen to them earlier.  It seems that a car crashed in to Solomon’s Porch Café earlier.  I thought it was very sweet that they took up a collection to help the business out.

This is a great event, in a great town.

I want to get back soon just to visit some of these friendly businesses again!

Old Fashioned Christmas In Wilmore, KY

Some friends have invited me to the "Old Fashioned Christmas in Wilmore" event before.

I FINALLY was able to go this year!!

This is a very cool event, and a bit unbelievable. It is excessively pleasant.

Several businesses have Christmas snacks and live music. Most weren't trying to sell anything, they were simply being nice and festive members of their community!

How many people can say that they have watched a band play in the frozen food section of the grocery store? Do you know anyone who has ever watched live music in a Chinese restaurant, while eating a free egg roll?

A movie was playing on a window of a business, and scouts were handing out cups for hot chocolate.

At the end of the evening, there was a very nice music program at the local church.

If ANYONE can contact me with the names of the bands I photographed inside of the bank or in the IGA, I would appreciate it! I would love to go check out these bands again in a more traditional setting.

The three piece band at the IGA did a GREAT Bobby McGee. The larger band in the bank just seemed to have a very nice country/folky sound going on. Usually a band that big can get a little sloppy, but this multi generational bunch really sounded right together.

There was something a bit unreal about this event. How cool is it that businesses in an area do something so pleasant?