Jingle Falls holiday events help spark local business during the off-season in Niagara Falls

It may not be the peak season for tourists at Niagara Falls, but the Jingle Falls USA Holiday Celebration has brought many to the downtown area for the second year. 

"We want people to come down here and realize what they have in their own backyard," Kim Barris, Event manager for Old Falls Street. 

To get people to explore downtown Niagara Falls, the Jingle Falls planning board packed the past three Saturdays with many different events to celebrate the holiday season. 

Events like the Festival of Slice welcomed around 1,500 people with $8,000 of pizza sold in that one Friday night, Seth Piccirillo, Director of Community Development for Niagara Falls confirmed. This past Saturday the Makers Market craft show brought around 1,000 people to the area as well. 

"If you build it, they will come," Steve Frounier, owner of Donatello's on Third Street said. Frounier described the event as "great chaos" and even sold out of pizza. 

Fronier has owned Donatello's for more than 25 years and loves to see the streets of Niagara Falls packed again. 

Owner of Power City Eatery-- Joe Hotchkiss can agree, the increase of people downtown on Saturdays is great for business. 

"The spirit from the people wanting this area to be successful," Hotchkiss said. "I think there is a real push from the local community to bring it back to that point, to bring it back to it's fullest potential." 

There is still one more weekend left of Jingle Falls. Saturday December 15th the celebration will host a Santa Con bar crawl for the adults and a bunch of other kid friendly events that can be found here. 

Piccirillo added that Jingle Falls will keep getting bigger and better in the years to come. 

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