The traditional holiday season is still months away, but Foley Main Street has decided that is no reason to wait.
On Thursday, July 16, Downtown Foley will host a “Christmas in July” Third Thursday event — the launch of what the organization intends to become a new annual tradition for the downtown district.
The Logic Behind It
The idea is a straight response to a shift in how people actually shop. Holiday buying has been creeping earlier for years, and Foley Main Street is leaning into that rather than fighting it, turning its monthly Third Thursday into an early start on holiday lists.
“We all know people are starting their Christmas shopping earlier and earlier, so we thought, why not July?” said Darrelyn Dunmore, executive director of Foley Main Street. “We’re inviting everyone to celebrate the season with a summer twist — think tropical vibes, cool drinks, and a very special guest from the North Pole.”
What’s Planned
- Summer Santa photo op: Forget the heavy velvet suit. A beach-ready Santa will be stationed downtown for photographs, offering a distinctly Gulf Coast holiday memory.
- Tropical elves on shelves: Sun-loving elves will be making appearances throughout the district.
- Early holiday shopping: Downtown merchants will be open for the evening.
Why Third Thursday Works
Foley’s Third Thursday is a recurring downtown event that gets people out of their cars and onto the sidewalks of the historic district — the single hardest thing for any small downtown to accomplish.
Main Street programs across the country exist for exactly this reason. Independent retailers in a historic district cannot compete with a big-box store on price or parking, so they compete on the thing a big-box store cannot manufacture: an evening worth leaving the house for. A Santa in board shorts on a July sidewalk in Baldwin County is, in that sense, a serious economic development strategy wearing a very silly hat.
If You Go
The event takes place in Downtown Foley on the evening of Thursday, July 16. It is free to attend, and families are encouraged to bring a camera for the Santa photos.
Foley, in central Baldwin County, has built a reputation as a destination town whose draw extends well beyond its outlet malls. Events like Third Thursday turn the historic downtown into a gathering place for residents of Foley and neighboring communities such as Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Robertsdale, and they give the city’s independent merchants a regular, reliable night of foot traffic. The Main Street program nationwide is built on exactly this principle: create a reason to be downtown, and the downtown takes care of the rest.
“Christmas in July” also taps into the region’s year-round tourism rhythm. Baldwin County’s Gulf Coast draws visitors in every season, and summer — when the beaches are busiest — is precisely when a cooler, air-conditioned evening of holiday shopping appeals to both locals and the tourists already in town. A beach-ready Santa is a small, playful acknowledgment of that contradiction: a Gulf Coast holiday is its own kind of holiday, sandals and all.
The broader strategy reflects how small Alabama downtowns are adapting to competition from big-box retailers and online shopping. Rather than match prices, they sell an experience — music, decorations, a photo op, a stroll under string lights — that a screen or a supercenter cannot provide. For Foley Main Street, turning a July evening into a holiday tradition is both marketing and community-building, and if the first one lands, it becomes the kind of recurring event that puts the town on the regional calendar.
The Third Thursday model itself has spread across the Gulf Coast as a low-cost way for downtowns to claim a recurring date on residents’ calendars. By picking one Thursday each month and wrapping it in a theme, a Main Street program creates a habit — and habits are what keep independent storefronts alive between the big seasonal rushes. Foley’s version has leaned into family-friendly themes, and “Christmas in July” is a natural fit for a district that wants summer visitors and year-round residents alike to think of downtown as the place to be on a Thursday night.
For the merchants who stay open late, the math is straightforward. A themed evening brings people downtown who might otherwise spend that July evening at the beach or at home, and once they are on the sidewalk, they shop, they eat, they linger. The event is free to attend, which lowers the barrier for families during a season when travel and entertainment costs add up. A beach-ready Santa, a few tropical elves, and some early holiday music are inexpensive props for what is, in substance, an investment in the downtown’s future.
Whether “Christmas in July” becomes a lasting Foley tradition will depend on turnout and on whether the merchants and volunteers who power Foley Main Street decide to make it a recurring fixture. The organization has signaled that intent, and the low cost of mounting the event — the city’s own downtown, a willing cast of elves, and a Santa willing to trade his boots for sandals — makes repetition plausible. In a region where summers are long and the holiday shopping season keeps arriving earlier, a midsummer holiday evening may be less a novelty than a practical response to how people actually live and spend along the Alabama Gulf Coast.
Foley’s identity as a family-oriented Baldwin County town makes an event like this a natural fit. The city has long balanced its role as a retail hub with its small-town character, and downtown events are where those two identities meet. A summer evening that gives children a chance to meet a beach-clad Santa, lets parents get a head start on holiday shopping, and keeps dollars in local stores is, by any measure, a win for the community — and a sign that Foley’s downtown is thinking creatively about its future.
The success of the inaugural “Christmas in July” will likely be measured not just by how many families show up for a photo with a beach-ready Santa, but by whether Foley Main Street decides to make it a permanent part of the Third Thursday calendar. If it does, the event will join the growing list of seasonal traditions — from Mardi Gras parades to lighting ceremonies — that give Baldwin County’s communities their rhythm through the year.