Forget Santa: One Maine Town Chooses the Grinch for Holiday Cheer

It's beginning to a lot like Christmas, almost everywhere you go in Maine. Towns and cities throughout the state have already begun to decorate for the holiday season with bright lights and boughs of holly.

But there's one particular spot in Maine that plans to put a twist on their holiday season. Rather than fully celebrate Santa Claus, Skowhegan plans to embrace the Grinch by turning their downtown in Whoville for one weekend this December.

The Skow-Whoville Celebration is Back for 2024

Returning again for 2024, the Skow-Whoville celebration takes place on Friday, December 7 and Saturday, December 7. It's a different take of a Skowhegan tradition that has been going on for more than three decades.

Just as the name suggests, downtown Skowhegan will get grinchy, with a litany of family-friendly activities and a Grinch parade to celebrate the holiday season with a twist.

Activities as Part of the Skow-Whoville Celebration

While the 2024 activity schedule hasn't been released as of this writing, a look back at the 2023 schedule should give you some clues on what to expect. The festivities kick off with the Grinch parade featuring many custom floats vying for the prize of being named "the Grinchiest"

Saturday is filled with a ton of family-friendly activities like will likely include a Grinch story walk, a petting zoo, horse and carriage rides and of course meet and greets with some of your favorite characters like Cindy Lou Who and the one and only Grinch.

There is Also Some Adult Fun at Skow-Whoville

While the event is meant to bring families together, there is another element to Skow-Whoville that could appeal to adults. That would be the Skow-Who Crawl.

Also taking place on Saturday, a set ticket price will get adults a variety of goodies including a Grinch fanny pack filled with Grinch goodies, free food along the crawl, as well as two drink tickets to include some Grinch-themed specialty drinks at stops along the way.