Photo by Deb Gau Ivanhoe Community Foods Manager Faith Olsen, left, greets Rowan Wahl as he looks at decorations inside the store. Holiday activities and additional vendors inside businesses were part of Wednesday’s Winter Open House in Ivanhoe.

IVANHOE — There was a steady flow of people up and down Norman Street in Ivanhoe on Wednesday evening as shoppers and even whole families stopped in at businesses.

It’s what organizers of Ivanhoe’s Winter Open House were hoping for, Faith Olsen said.

“We’re trying to get people in a festive mood, and trying to get people to come together again after COVID,” said Olsen, the manager of Ivanhoe Community Foods and one of the open house organizers.

The past couple of years have posed challenges for small businesses, and even changed the mood as people are out in the community, Olsen said.

“It’s kind of nice to have it back,” Kelsey Bednarek said of the open house, as she greeted visitors at the Main Attractions salon.

“Hopefully, it can be a turning point for this area,” she said.

The Winter Open House has been a seasonal event in Ivanhoe for years, organizers said. Like a lot of community events around southwest Minnesota, the open house was making a comeback after last year’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Olsen, together with fellow organizers Amber Sheehan and Jacki Studemann, worked with local businesses and helped line up holiday activities. Downtown businesses in Ivanhoe welcomed shoppers with refreshments, prize drawings, and even some additional vendors at some locations.

“We had a really good response” from vendors, Olsen said.

This week’s warm weather was a bonus for the event, too.

“An outside thing? Who would have thought, on December 2?” one passerby said, as she stopped at a refreshments stand outside the Bank of the West location in Ivanhoe.

Reba Lipinski, at Lipinski Small Engine & Hardware, said there was a pretty steady flow of people coming in at the start of the open house event. The hope was that people would come in to local businesses and see what they had to offer, Lipinski said.

Olsen and other businesspeople said the pandemic has had frustrating impacts on Ivanhoe’s downtown.

“It’s been a very trying couple of years with COVID, especially in small towns,” said Amber Scholten, at Antique Designs By Amber. Scholten said businesses suffered, especially ones that had to close temporarily due to state restrictions.

At the local grocery cooperative, Ivanhoe Community Foods, there were fewer food orders for community events, Olsen said. Disruptions to supply chains sometimes made it hard to stock items at the store, as well.

But at the same time, businesspeople and vendors were hopeful that the open house would encourage people to get out and shop locally for the holidays.

“There has been a nice flow of people,” Scholten said.

“I saw a few people tonight that I didn’t know from around town,” Juell Drietz said.