Photo by Dwayne Black Andrew Lundstrom and his daughter Ella, visit with Santa Claus and his reindeer (llamas) at Terrace 1872 during the annual Holiday Santa and Friends Meet and Greet event Saturday in downtown Marshall.

MARSHALL — Saturday’s winter storm helped bring a little bit of the North Pole to downtown Marshall’s holiday season kickoff event.

Visitors coming to see Santa Claus at Terrace 1872 were bundled up, as snow fell all around.

“It was magical standing there,” said Sam Lund, events specialist for the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce.

The winter storm that dumped several inches of snow across southwest Minnesota did put a damper on shopping for Small Business Saturday, downtown businesspeople said. However, there were still some people who braved the weather.

Lund estimated that about 30 people came to see Santa on Saturday afternoon. It was a positive turnout given the weather, he said. Organizers had considered whether to go on with the event. But once the Santa event started, “people just kept coming,” he said.

“I did see people going back and forth to different businesses,” Lund said of traffic downtown.

Main Street businesses said foot traffic had been good on Black Friday, but the snowstorm Saturday impacted different shops in different ways.

At Noble Woman Boutique, “It was a lot busier than I thought it would be with the snow,” said Meredith Callens.

Callens said she hadn’t known what to expect for the day, but things started to pick up in the afternoon.

Chad Kulla, owner of The Bike Shop, said the store had seen an uptick in sales and traffic on Friday, which was typical for the season. Not only is the Friday after Thanksgiving seen as the start of the holiday shopping season, but there are people gathered with their families.

“There’s more people in town looking to get out,” and maybe go shopping, he said.

But there were a lot fewer people shopping on Saturday, Kulla said.

“The weather obviously played a huge role in that,” he said.

At Mister Cool’s Clothing, Brad Cool said the store had also seen a difference in traffic between Black Friday and Saturday, due to the weather.

“The roads out of town were pretty bad,” Cool said.

Callens said customers who made it downtown on Saturday seemed to be more local. But at this time of year there are often people who are visiting family in Minnesota as well.

“It’s always fun,” she said of seeing visiting customers.