Stevensville will light up the downtown with Friday's Country Christmas evening. The stores will stay open late because it's First Friday December 7, but also to celebrate the Main Street lights. First to be lit will be the community Christmas tree at Veterans Park on the north end of the street. From there, a large crowd of people, carrying flashlights and other illumination, will parade to 3rd and Main, where a live Nativity scene will be happening. Everyone is invited to join in the parade and bring your own lights.

The winner of the kid's coloring contest will get to hit the switch to turn on the overhead lights on Main and then Santa will arrive in a horse-drawn wagon. The horse-drawn wagons will be busy, offering free rides on Main and back and forth between Main Street and St Mary's Mission, which will be open with their vintage toys and nativities from around the world. The historic chapel will be open, too. Warming fires will be keeping people warm and the Montana A Capella Society will be caroling at the North Valley Public Library. The Stevensville Playhouse presents the comedy "The Foreigner." Friday and Saturday, the Bitterroot Valley Model Railroad Club will be running in the basement of Valley Drug at 301 Main (and every Saturday until Christmas). Saturday December 8 is also the day for the Stevensville Booster Club Annual Holiday Bazaar at the high school gym.

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