From a Parade Float to a Holiday Destination: DTCP Is Betting on the Magic of Tipp City

Community Choice Award marks a first for Downtown Tipp City Partnership as the organization prepares to launch its most ambitious holiday season yet

For the first time ever, the Downtown Tipp City Partnership had a float in the Tipp City Mum Festival Parade.

And Tipp City noticed. The float, a larger-than-life preview of the Christmas season ahead, earned the Community Choice Award, giving DTCP an unforgettable first trip down the parade route and providing what Executive Director Tasha Weaver says is the perfect introduction to a much bigger story.

For years, Weaver had wanted DTCP to participate in the parade with a float. But for a nonprofit organization, every dollar matters.“We watch every dollar that we spend because we want to make sure we are giving the community the best experience we can,” Weaver said. “We are a preservation organization, but preservation is really about people and places. It is about protecting the places people love and creating reasons for people to keep loving them.”

A grant opportunity from the Tipp City Foundation finally gave the organization the additional support it needed to turn the idea into reality. But the float itself was a community effort. Chris Snider, a past DTCP board chair, volunteered his time to help build and prepare the trailer and base for the float and worked alongside other volunteers to bring the design to life. His behind-the-scenes work provided the foundation for what eventually made its way down the parade route.

Students from the Miami County ESC Structured Learning Classroom at Bethel High School also played an important role in the project. The life skills classroom focuses on functional academics with the goal of helping students become as independent and involved in their communities as possible during and after high school. As part of that real-world learning, students stuffed 300 cinch sacks with crayons and coloring books for DTCP to distribute to children along the Mum Festival Parade route. The partnership gave students an opportunity to practice job skills while contributing directly to a community event, exactly the kind of experience their classroom works to provide.

“That is one of the things I love most about projects like this,” Weaver said. “It wasn’t just DTCP showing up with a float. We had volunteers giving their time, a former board chair helping us build it, students getting real-life experience and a foundation investing in the idea. By the time that float went down the parade route, a lot of people had a hand in making it happen.”

Winning the Community Choice Award made the experience even more meaningful.

“We are so thankful to everyone who helped us make it happen, to the Tipp City Foundation for helping give us that final push, and to the Mum Festival Committee and parade committee. We know firsthand how much work goes into putting on an event for the community.”

But there was one question DTCP knew people might be asking. Why did Downtown Tipp City Partnership have a Christmas float in September? The answer is part of a larger vision for downtown Tipp City.

Spend enough time talking with visitors downtown and eventually someone will say it. Tipp City looks like a Hallmark movie. Weaver has another description she uses frequently. A storybook town. “There is a certain kind of magic when you walk through downtown Tipp City,” she said. “You have the historic buildings, the locally owned businesses, the lights, the people and the feeling that comes from being somewhere that still has a strong sense of place. But people can only experience that if we give them a reason to come here.” For DTCP, Christmas presents one of the biggest opportunities to do exactly that.

The City of Tipp City already transforms downtown during the holidays with lights wrapping the trees along Main Street. Last year, lighting was added to the historic depot on Fifth Street, creating another holiday landmark for visitors entering downtown. Local organizations and businesses have also built traditions of their own.

Downtown merchants kick off the season during Yuletide Winter’s Gathering, followed later by Moonlight and Mistletoe. Tipp Monroe Community Services welcomes families for its Breakfast with Santa and Holiday Lights Tour Contest.

Then there is Downtown Tipp City Partnership’s growing holiday lineup.

DTCP’s Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting has experienced significant growth over the past three years. This year’s parade steps off Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. with the theme Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.

In December, DTCP will once again host its historic home tour, Tippecanoe and Christmas Too, which brings guests into Tipp City from throughout Ohio and surrounding states.

Weaver says the impact of those events extends beyond a single weekend. “We hear stories from people who come for the home tour or another Christmas event, discover Tipp City and fall in love with it,” she said. “Then they come back in the summer because they want to see what downtown is like during another season. Those are the stories I love hearing.” This year, DTCP is taking the next step.

The new initiative is called Tipp the Halls, and it may be Downtown Tipp City Partnership’s most ambitious holiday project yet. At the center of the project is a familiar community space: the basement of the Monroe Township Building. Many Tipp City residents have been there without ever thinking of it as a destination.

Rotary meets there each Wednesday. Pancake breakfasts have been served there. Families and organizations rent it for reunions, showers, meetings and celebrations. It is handicap accessible, located in the heart of downtown, adjacent to a kitchen and capable of accommodating approximately 300 people. In a historic downtown, Weaver says, a space like that is incredibly valuable. There is just one challenge. Most of the year, it is a blank white room.

This Christmas, that is going to change. Through an Impact Grant Award, DTCP is transforming the basement into an immersive holiday experience filled with Christmas trees, lights, themed spaces and decorations. Visitors will hardly recognize it. “We are taking this blank canvas and asking, ‘What if this could become something magical?’” Weaver said. “Not just for one event, but a space where the community could gather throughout the entire Christmas season.” The answer became Tipp the Halls.

More than 10 Christmas trees are already planned for the space, along with themed décor and gathering areas designed to make the basement feel completely different from its everyday appearance. But DTCP did not want Tipp the Halls to simply be a decorated room. It wanted people to experience it.

The Tipp City Foundation stepped in with additional grant funding to support free community programming, allowing DTCP to build a calendar of activities around the space. The result is a holiday experience designed not only for visitors, but for Tipp City families, businesses, organizations and community groups. Programming will stretch throughout the Christmas season and will include opportunities for residents to gather, play, celebrate and create memories together.

A centralized holiday calendar will also give residents and visitors one place to discover events happening throughout Tipp City, not just those hosted by DTCP. “We want to make it easy for people to get into the holiday spirit,” Weaver said. “There are so many wonderful organizations doing Christmas programming here. This isn’t about DTCP doing everything. It is about bringing those pieces together and helping people experience Tipp City.”

The Community Is Invited to Build It! Before the first guest walks through the doors of Tipp the Halls, DTCP is inviting the community to be part of creating it. A final community planning meeting will be held Oct. 21 at 5 p.m. Then, on Oct. 28 at 5 p.m., volunteers are invited to the Monroe Township Building for a community cleaning party. Yes, a cleaning party. And yes, Weaver promises there will be pizza. “We know cleaning a basement does not sound like the most exciting invitation in the world,” she joked. “So we’re adding pizza, 

turning on some music and making it fun. This whole project is supposed to be about community, and that starts before the decorations ever go up.” The real transformation begins Oct. 30 at 9 a.m., when community members are invited to help decorate. With more than 10 trees and multiple areas of the basement being transformed, decorating is expected to continue for several days. DTCP is organizing decorations by tree and area so volunteers can easily jump into the project. Totes will be placed with the corresponding trees and décor, allowing volunteers to arrive, choose a project and start decorating. Anyone wishing to volunteer are welcome to RSVP by contacting Tasha Weaver at 937-667-0883, although registration is not required.

“If someone has an hour, come give us an hour,” Weaver said. “If you love decorating Christmas trees, we definitely have a tree for you. We want people to be able to walk into Tipp the Halls later and say, ‘I helped create this.’”

For Downtown Tipp City Partnership, Tipp the Halls is also part of a larger conversation about what downtown preservation looks like today. Preservation is certainly about historic buildings. But DTCP believes successful preservation also requires people using those buildings, businesses succeeding inside them, visitors discovering them and residents creating emotional connections to the place. That is why the organization’s work reaches beyond traditional preservation projects. DTCP works through economic development, design, promotions and organizational sustainability to support the downtown district. Events are one piece of that work. They bring people downtown, introduce visitors to local businesses and create opportunities for people to experience historic Tipp City rather than simply drive past it. “We can protect a building, but we also have to give people a reason to care about that building and the community around it,” Weaver said. “The strongest downtowns are places where people have memories.” Christmas offers an opportunity to create a lot of them.

DTCP knows Tipp the Halls will not be finished after its first season. That is intentional. The organization sees this year as the beginning of what could become a signature Tipp City tradition that grows and changes over time. Just as the Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting has grown during the past several years, Weaver hopes Tipp the Halls will become an experience families put on their calendars year after year. For visitors, it provides another reason to discover Tipp City. For residents, it creates another reason to celebrate the place they already call home. And for Downtown Tipp City Partnership, it connects directly to what the organization believes its work is ultimately about. People. Places. And protecting the places people love by making sure those places remain full of life.

“We hope people stick around because there is so much more coming,” Weaver said. “We want Tipp the Halls to become something people look forward to every Christmas. We want people to visit Tipp City, explore our downtown, support our businesses and make memories here.” “If someone comes downtown this Christmas and thinks, ‘This really does feel like a storybook town,’ then I think we’ve done something pretty special.”

And perhaps that explains the Christmas float in September after all.

It wasn’t too early.

It was a preview.

Downtown Tipp City Partnership is a Main Street America and Heritage Ohio accredited nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing, preserving, and promoting Tipp City by honoring its past and building its future. Through preservation, economic vitality, placemaking, events, partnerships, and community engagement, DTCP works to strengthen downtown as the heart of the community.