Business & Tech

PHOTOS: 'First Friday,' Holiday Edition

Jumping right into the whirl of the season, a new group called Los Altos Forward held a 'Downtown Holiday Party,' with the aim of making nights a little merrier here. And there's more to come in February, they say.

What does an outdoor holiday party look like?

At the inaugural "First Friday" event downtown, the Bullis Charter School Choir sang the streets, Santa listened, and the Train, powered by the "Forty and Eight," clanged its way in a gaily lit loop around State Street and Main Street.

Girl Scouts handed out maps of the events and 20 participating businesses that stayed open later.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Inside , the State Street flower and gift shop that is now filled with holiday hostess gifts, owner David Wales was offering up hot soup. Visitors could choose between pumpkin bisque topped with lingonberry creme fraiche, or a broccoli and ham soup with mesquite-chipotle creme fraiche.

 had story-telling hour, had hot cider set up at the gate, and many businesses had special discounts that night. Santa was taking young callers at .

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

And on the street corners, Santa-hatted guides answered questions about the First Friday effort, including Joe Eyre, a member of Los Altos Forward, who confided he'd always wanted to ride the American Legion train.

Concerned about downtown's vitality, the group has been meeting twice a week to generate ideas to "promote vibrancy within the community." The group is trying to complement the efforts of other institutions such as the Los Altos Village Association. Eyre described its goals as three-fold: to foster a vision, work for parking, and build community. 

Eyre's tackled the latter, as the leader of social activities. First Fridays is one of them. "Meet Your Neighbors" is our general tagline, said Eyre, who the First Fridays will take place in even-numbered months.

The next event is in February.

 

 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here