Week of November 20-26, 2024

Good morning, St. John’s. This is St. John’s Living —the newsletter that’s a ray of sunshine in the RDF of your inbox.

In this week’s St. John’s Living:

• BoT Business Awards Gala 🏆

• Downtown Christmas parade 🎅

• Say Cheerio, Bonjour, Slainte to Europe in 2025 ✈️

Let’s get into it…

Digest

🏆 St. John’s Board of Trade Business Awards Gala Sold Out

The annual St. John’s Board of Trade Business Awards are a chance to get together and celebrate the best of the best in the local business community. The gala is being held on Thursday but if you don’t already have your tickets, you’ll have to try again next year as this year’s gala sold out in record time.

🎅 Downtown St. John’s Christmas Parade

Are you ready to welcome the Maple Leaf Big Stick back for another Christmas season? The parade kicks off at noon leaving from the Johnson Building on Factory Lane heading for the Jag Hotel. Keep an eye on the forecast though. The endless RDF we’ve been enduring looks like it might rain on our parade. Rain date is Sunday, December 1st.

✈️ Say Cheerio, Bonjour, Slainte to Europe in 2025

WestJet announced this week that not only will our direct flight to London’s Gatwick airport return in May 2025, but direct European air access will be expanded with additional flights to Paris (once weekly) and Dublin (2x weekly). So this summer, in just 5 hours you could be sipping a pint of Guinness at the brewery or eating a croissant by the Eiffel Tower. Mais oui! We also love what these means for local tourism operators and businesses.

Local Business

• Urban Market is not opening Christmas House this year due to last year’s ongoing legal battles with the City of St. John’s. 🙁

• Punchbowl has made the shift back to online only and closed their Southside Rd location.

• Curry Delight has closed in Mount Pearl and made its last market appearance.

• Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore is celebrating a grand re-opening showing off their newly expanded space.

• Jack Axes has applied to open a new location in the old Tweed location on Water St. The new location would have axe throwing, archery, and a paint splatter room.

• Year of the Arts mural by Jerry Evans was unveiled on Harvey Rd. this past Friday. We love to see it. Not only does it add colour and life to the street, but murals are a great way to reduce graffiti tagging.

What’s Happening

Wednesday

✍️ A.C. Hunter Library is hosting local author and broadcaster, William Ping at 6:30pm to speak about the intricacies of creating fiction from factual stories. If you haven’t read his novel, Hollow Bamboo, I’m sure the library can help you out.

Thursday

🚶‍♀️ Looking to meet new people and get some fresh air? Chic Celebrations is hosting two more Walk & Talk Socials this month. Meet at Bowring Park @ 5:30pm.

Friday

🍺 If there’s one thing mummers know how to do, it’s dance! Come in your finest Mummer rigs to dance the night away at the Mummers Kitchen Party at Quidi Vidi Brewery to kick off the annual Mummers Festival. Prizes for the best get-up.

🕯 Christmas at Commissariat House by Candlelight is a magical event. Enjoy a sip of hot cider by the crackling fire, festive music, the smell of fir boughs and a magical wander through the house by the soft glow of candlelight. Let your imagination take you back to an 1830s Christmas in St. John’s.

🛍️ A Very Merry Market takes over the St. John’s Farmer’s Market from 5:00pm-9:00pm for a little post-work/pre-weekend Christmas shopping.

Saturday

🎤 Tanya Tagaq will be at Johnson Geo Centre as part of the Spirit Song Festival. She is an internationally celebrated improvisational singer, avant-garde composer and bestselling author. The event will have a Red Carpet entrance and dance floor and audiences and artists alike are encouraged to dress-their-best, with Regalia highly encouraged!

♻️ Have any glass containers kicking around your house that you wish you could recycle? The Newfoundland Glass Recycling Co-Op will be collecting glass at the Farmer’s Market starting at 9:00am.

Sunday

🎅 The annual Downtown Christmas parade takes over Duckworth and Water St this afternoon…unless the RDF gets us.

Monday

🎄 Tickets go on sale at noon for the MUN Botanical Garden’s Merry & Bright light festival. The festival will run from December 1-22. This is always popular so don’t wait to get yours.

Tuesday

🥌 The KIOTI National curling event kicks off bright and early with Draw 1 at 8:00am. Local heroes, Team Gushue (now with former rival Brendan Bottcher) have their first draw at 3:00pm against Team Muskatewitz.

🎲 Love board games? Want to game with new friends. Downtown Comics is hosting a board game night at Boston Pizza from 7pm-10pm. Go with a group of go solo and meeting new gaming buddies.

Municipal News

⚖️City Council Meeting

The next St. John’s City Council meeting will be Tuesday, November 26th.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading St. John’s Living today. If you found something useful, please share it with someone who owns a sun therapy lamp.