Visit Santa and take a carriage ride and a house tour. Visit Holiday Art Festival and then enjoy children’s crafts.  Listen to selections for Handel’s Messiah. It’s Christmas in Collinsville, a weekend of festivities organized by Downtown Collinsville, Inc. on Dec. 4 and 5 and what better way to begin the celebration than with an official Tree Lighting ceremony for the enormous blue spruce in front of the Collinsville Township building at 305 East Main Street. (You can’t miss the blue spruce driving around the corner on East Main. It is originally from an area behind the Senior Center and was cut to make way for an expansion next year).  The Collinsville Chorale and Curtains Up will provide the caroling for the ceremony and later the Collinsville Chorale presents Christmas with the Chorale at Holy Cross Lutheran Church at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

On Saturday, Dec. 5, Santa will be stationed at Miners Theatre where visitors can also begin a Horsedrawn Carriage Ride from noon to 4 p.m. Free tickets are available at the Collinsville Library, at 408 West Main; the Chamber of Commerce, 221 West Main; and Collinsville Area Recreation District Activity Center, 10 Gateway Drive. Stop in at the UrBaN aRt CoOp, at 101 East Main for Children’s Crafts.

On Saturday, the Holiday House Tour returns this year to feature nine local venues that have decked the halls and opened their doors.  The self-guided tour begins at the Blum House, 414 West Main. Tickets are $10 and will be available the day of the Tour at the Blum House.

A new addition this year, the Holiday Art Festival will provide holiday shoppers with a selection of jewelry, woodwork, baskets, candy, art, prints, oil paintings, needlework and a local author’s book signings on both days at the Collinsville Library and the Blum House from noon to 8 p.m.

“This was an idea of (Director) Barb Rhodes for anyone who would like to buy local, buy original and buy art,” said DCI President Katie Heaton about the Holiday Arts Festival.

Enjoy storefronts decorated for the Snowman Stroll Coloring Contest and take advantage of Main Street Business Specials.

“We definitely have something for everyone,” Heaton added.