The Ellijay Downtown Development Authority (DDA) made plans for next weekend’s “Light Up Ellijay” at this past Wednesday’s Downtown Development Authority meeting.During the meeting, members from Ellijay’s DDA discussed the upcoming Light Up Ellijay event scheduled for next week Friday, November 23rd with DDA Manager Mona Lowe.

According to Lowe, Light Up Ellijay will include numerous downtown vendors beginning around 3:00 p.m. followed by the Light Up Ellijay Christmas Parade at 6:00 p.m. After the parade, winners from this year’s parade float contest will be announced along with winners from this year’s downtown Ellijay window decoration contest. In addition, there will also be a special tree lighting project by the North Georgia Medical Center, where businesses and organizations from the Gilmer County Chamber of Commerce will be recognized for their hours of volunteer work in the community. Later, the regular tree lighting will begin around 7:00 p.m.

This year’s Light Up Ellijay event will also include Christmas Music and Caroling, Downtown Ellijay Store Specials, raffle contests, and a special visit by Santa Claus.

Additionally, the DDA discussed plans for its Downtown Ellijay Christmas Tour of Homes scheduled Saturday, November 24th. The Downtown Ellijay Christmas Tour of Homes will include a mapped Tour of Historic Downtown and four historic Ellijay Homes. The DDA will sell tickets for the tour at $20;tickets are available at various stores in the Downtown area, the Downtown Ellijay Welcome Center and City Hall.

Lastly, Vice-Chair and head of the DDA’s Promotions Committee Melinda Hadden announced that the DDA’s social media website is now available on the internet. The DDA’s social media website was started in October and can be found on Facebook titled Downtown Ellijay.