BWG Santa Claus Parade

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Darlene Alexander

Brand Recognition is Crucial

Do you know who Santa Claus is? If you do, then you know about brand recognition. Santa is one of the most recognized brands in the world, and his image is synonymous with Christmas. But what about BWG Santa Claus Parade? We’re a year-round Christmas market that has been running for 25 years, and we want more people to know about us! That’s where brand recognition comes in. During my research, I found myself at the website I Buy I Review, where I learned everything I needed to know about brand recognition. In this blog post, I’m going to share that information with you so that your business can benefit from it too!

Brand recognition is basically when people see your brand and they know who you are. It’s that simple. But there’s a lot that goes into achieving brand recognition. For starters, your brand needs to be memorable. People need to be able to see it and remember it later on. That’s why Santa Claus is so recognizable; his image is burned into our brains from years of Christmas celebrations. But your brand doesn’t have to be as big as Santa’s to be successful. You just need to make sure that people remember you!

There are a few ways to increase brand recognition for your business. One way is through marketing and advertising. If you’re constantly putting your brand in front of people, they’re more likely to remember it. Another way to increase brand recognition is through word-of-mouth. If people are talking about your business, that’s a good sign! And finally, you can increase brand recognition by providing excellent customer service. If people have a positive experience with your business, they’re more likely to remember you and recommend you to others.

How about brand awareness? Well, brand awareness and brand recognition are not the same. Brand awareness is when people are exposed to your brand, but they might not know who you are. For example, if someone sees a commercial for your business but doesn’t remember your name, that’s brand awareness. Brand recognition is when people see your brand and they know who you are. So if someone sees that same commercial and then remembers your name later on, that’s brand recognition.

I understood that brand recognition is important, but I also wanted to know how important it is. After all, if it’s not that important, then we might as well save our money and not worry about it, right? But according to the experts at I Buy I Review, brand recognition is “absolutely essential” for businesses. In fact, they say that without brand recognition, businesses will “struggle to survive, let alone thrive.”

That’s a pretty strong statement, but it makes sense when you think about it. If people don’t know who you are, they’re not going to buy from you. And if they don’t buy from you, your business is going to struggle. So if you want your business to be successful, you need to make sure that people know who you are!

Thus, I started the journey to build more brand recognition for BWG Santa Claus Parade. We’ll see if it’s successful.



Join Us for Our Annual 25 Days of Christmas Spectacular!

It’s not surprise that our biggest time of year is in December, and we start right the celebrations right away on December 1.  

Our 25 Days of Christmas Spectacular consists of a special event year night. There is a tree lighting, caroling, Christmas play — we have it all! Even all items in the 12 days of Christmas! The main event though, that kicks it all off, is the Santa Clause Parade. This is a massive parade that goes through the entire town and includes floats decorated in many festive lights. And, of course, the parade ends with the Big Guy himself – Santa!  

Each event is completely free, and there are plenty of presents, treats and hot coca for purchase. So whether you come for a night or all 25, we hope to see you at our 25 Days of Christmas Spectacular!



How We Pick Our Santa

The most important job at our Christmas market is Santa. He is the person that needs to be there every day and must always exude the holiday spirit. It’s not always easy to be jolly 365, but our Santas need to be.  

From middle of January to the end of October, we have usually two Santas on staff. These two Santas have been with us for four years and take their jobs very seriously. They always keep their hair and beard trimmed in a Santa-style, and they’ve eaten enough cookies to make sure they have Santas perfectly round belly. Their Santa suits have been custom made for me them and include embellishments with their initials. These Santas are so serious, they even belong to a Santa union!  

Then, from November to the first part of January, we hire an extra two Santas because we are quite busy. These Santas are usually not the same because we expect a high caliber of Santa and some of the better ones get hired to work longer-running jobs. We also need more than one Santa at the market at a time because of the number of visitors. Don’t worry, though, the two Santas are kept completely separate and there is no chance a youngster would notice that there are two Santas on the premise. We go to great lengths to keep the magic of Santa alive for our young visitors.  

Each fall, we start holding auditions for our Santas. We look for those who have the Santa look. They have to have natural hair and bear—no fake beard here! We also ask them to pretend visiting with different children. We want to see how they do with children who are shy, upset, and just a bit too talkative. We also want to see what kind of voice they use and how they respond to the children. It’s extremely important that they are good with kids and know how to make children feel safe.  

Once we hire our Santas, they go through an extensive training and then are fitted for suits. Each Santa has two suits so they can rotate them out to keep them pristine.  

Then, our Santas get to work bringing out joy and love! 



Christmas in the Summer

Many people think summer is for beach vacations or attending a summer camp, but we think you can have a little bit of holly jolly in July as well!  

Summer is actually a fairly busy season for us as many people are traveling by on vacation or dropping their kids off at camp. They see our store, and they want to stop to pick up a few items for next Christmas or get a bit of break from the summer heat.  

Each year, we host a Christmas in Summer event on June 25—exactly six days until Christmas. We bring Santa’s Workshop to the market to show kids and families that Santa is already hard at work on next Christmas. We also have events where kids can make calendars to countdown to Christmas, activities they can do at home to get on the Nice List and create ornaments for their next tree. Of course, Christmas cookies and caroling are involved as well as feeding some resting reindeer.  

Our Christmas in the Summer event is a great way to spread the holiday magic to other times of the year. We hope to see you at our event this year! 



Our Story

BWG Santa Clause Parade is a Christmas market that has been running for 25 years.  

The Christmas market started with the Glendon family who has had a Christmas tree farm in their family for over three generations. The family loved that farm, but they wanted a way to help people celebrate Christmas all year long. They decided the best way to do that, while still operating the tree farm, was to open a market. The problem, though, was where. The farm wasn’t near any towns or major highways. They wanted to have it in a place that was easy for people to get to, but where they could also sell their trees.  

One summer, the Glendon family was driving across the country for a big road trip and they stopped at a big truck stop in the middle of the country. The place had everything – restaurants, gas stations, shops – even showers, if you needed it! There were tons of people there, and they thought that that might be a great place for the store. It also wasn’t too far from a major city so there were plenty of suburbs around for them to establish community roots.  

The only problem was they wanted to be able to sell their trees as well. Ben W. Glendon, the main owner of the farm at the time, knew that the farm was hundreds of miles away from the market, but realized that could be a good selling point. If they could find a way to transport the trees down to the market, people might be really excited to have a special tree from the northern part of the country. He happened to have a friend in the trucking business who could help him set up transportation for the trees, so they decided to give it a go. They bought space next to the truck stop, invited the communities nearby to be part of the grand opening, and that Christmas, brought their northeast trees down to the middle of the country.  

The store was, and is, a huge success. Each year, visitors from across the entire country come visit our little store. We’ve even had many international visitors. While we have moved buildings since that first store (we are now more located in the community, but still closer to the major highways), we still have the same intentions—to bring holiday joy all year long. And, each holiday season, the Glendon family brings down their trees, allowing people everywhere to get that perfect tree. It’s our yearly tradition, and we hope you will be a part of it this year!



What You’ll Find at BWG Santa Clause Parade

Hello! Welcome to the blog of the BWG Santa Clause Parade. We are a Christmas market located in the center of the United States, and we celebrate Christmas all year long! We truly are a place that never loses its holiday magic.  

So, what will you find at out market? We have thousands of handmade ornaments that have come from every corner of the world. Our team travels to each continent and meets with local crafters to find these one-of-a-kind ornaments. We also have other holiday decorations, including snow globes, porcelain figures, door signs, handmade trees, linens, dishware, and so much more! Also, during the holiday season, we sell Christmas trees and wreaths that are brought down from our tree farm in Vermont. Additionally, we have a holiday café that sells Christmas treats, like hot apple cider and sugar cookies.  

During the festive season, we have many, many events including caroling, cookie decorating, wreath making, and, of course, Santa visits. We also have other events, including Christmas in the Summer, all year long. That way, you can get your Christmas fix no matter what time of year! 

Don’t celebrate Christmas? We are still a place for you! We have a special section for other major religious holidays, including Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid al-Fitr. 

Our main goal is to spread joy and happiness all year long, so whether it is March or July or December, we hope you visit us!

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