Celebrate the Holidays, Hometown-Style, In Uptown Ankeny!
Article written by Alexa Middleton, Director of Uptown Ankeny
The leaves shading SW 3rd Street in Uptown Ankeny are tinged with color, there’s a crispness to the air in the mornings, and the 33rd season of the Uptown Ankeny Farmers Market has wrapped: all signs that Spooky Season is here and the holiday shopping frenzy is just around the corner!
Don’t get me wrong, we love summer in Uptown: putting on the farmers market for our city and surrounding areas each week, welcoming summer cyclists and community members to relax on the many superb patios in our neighborhood, and enjoying lazy shopping days in our retail stores are all big parts of Uptown’s identity. But there’s just something magical about the fall and winter holidays in Uptown, and our Uptown Ankeny Association and Uptown businesses go all-out with decorations, attractions, and events to celebrate with our community and help create those precious hometown holiday memories that bring us all together.
Spooky Season Fun In Ankeny’s original neighborhood
Our Fright Lights attraction includes a dozen spooky light displays, which will be lit each night from 10/1/24-10/31/24, and are meant to be enjoyed on foot, by bicycle, or from your car. Do some shopping, grab a bite or a drink, and then end your evening strolling through these bewitching displays! Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Latitude 41 Lawn & Landscapes of Iowa, for helping to make it happen!
Once our Fright Lights attraction goes up, the countdown to Halloween In Uptown really begins! This year’s event will take place on Thursday, 10/17/24 from 4-8pm along SW 3rd and SW Maple Streets in Uptown Ankeny. Uptown’s biggest event of the year, Halloween In Uptown will bring you 4 blocks of trunk-or-treating, a DJ Dance Party, Costume Contest, plus more frightening fun around every corner! Check-in for the Costume Contest will be from 4-6pm, and you can find the check-in booth on the Uptown Ankeny Association’s office lawn at 601 SW 3rd Street (corner of 3rd & Cherry). Costume Contest winners will be announced at 7:00 and must be present to win. Halloween In Uptown is presented by Veridian Credit Union.
Each Friday in October, the Uptown Ankeny Outdoor Cinema will host a different Halloween movie from our Spooky Series in the Uptown Garage Brewing & Porch Light Coffeehouse Backyard. Movies begin at 7:30, lawn chairs and blankets are welcome, but outside alcohol is not allowed. Luckily, if you’d like to partake or are looking for a non-alcoholic beverage, Uptown Garage Brewing is on site to take care of those needs.
2024 Spooky Series Lineup:
10/4: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, sponsored by Uptown Garage Brewing
10/11: Addams Family Values, sponsored by Metronet Fiber
10/18: Scooby Doo (2003)
10/25: The Nightmare Before Christmas, sponsored by Reyna Immerfall, State Farm Agent
We hope to see you for some scary good times in Uptown this October!
The Most Wonderful Time Of the Year
Once October 31st has passed, it’s a mad dash to transform Uptown in to a holiday wonderland! Fright Lights displays come down and Winter Wonderlights displays go up, with the help of a great number of community volunteers. In 2024, our Winter Wonderlights displays will be lit each evening from 11/8/24-12/31/24. For those who haven’t experienced it before, Winter Wonderlights is a collection of 50 animated light displays lit along and around SW 3rd Street from SW Logan to SW Scott, as well as SW Maple through the Ankeny Market & Pavilion park, in partnership with the City of Ankeny. This attraction is meant to be enjoyed on foot, by bicycle, or from your vehicle, and features include our 25-foot show tree, which performs a light show set to music every 30 minutes, and a light tunnel that spans the High Trestle Trail. This attraction is completely free, and could not be accomplished without the support of many area businesses who sponsor the displays. Every night from November 8th through December 31st is a perfect opportunity to shop and dine in Uptown, then spend time exploring Winter Wonderlights.
Every year we light our Winter Wonderlights displays for the first time on the same night we kick off the holiday shopping season with the Champagne & Mistletoe event in Uptown. Our Uptown businesses are open late and deck all the halls to welcome you into their stores on this night. Horse-drawn carriage rides pick up in the Ankeny Area Historical Society Museum parking lot from 5-7pm and drive you through our newly lit Winter Wonderlights displays. This year’s Champagne & Mistletoe event will take place on Friday, 11/8/24, from 5-8pm.
We like to go out on the most magical of high notes each year with our last event on the calendar: Miracle On 3rd Street, presented by Lamberti, Murphy, & Strong Law. This family-focused holiday event features visits with Santa, visits with Santa’s reindeer, Uptown shops open late, giveaways, hot cocoa warm-up stops, and more holiday attractions. Pause for a magical snowfall around the Uptown Ankeny Show Tree at 7pm and soak up the holiday atmosphere of the surrounding Winter Wonderlights displays. This year’s Miracle On 3rd Street event will take place on Friday, 12/13/24 from 5-7:30pm.
Thank you Ankeny and the Ankeny Area Chamber for all the support you’ve given to Uptown Ankeny in 2024! We’re excited to celebrate another holiday season with our Ankeny community, and we hope to see you in Ankeny’s original neighborhood for holiday fun.