It felt more like a festival being hosted in early fall rather than in late November as New Albany held its annual Holiday Festival Saturday.

But the holiday spirit had arrived, as the cold weather will surely follow. The event included several of its regular attractions along with some new events to entice people to experience the city.

“It’s a collaborated effort between the city of New Albany and Develop New Albany,” said Mike Kopp, president of Develop New Albany. “It’s something that’s getting a little bit better every year and we hope that we can grow it a lot more even next year.”

The growth of the event spread around to local restaurants, retailers, crafts booths at the YMCA. Entertainment was provided and, of course, Santa Claus made an appearance.

However, the main goal for the event is exposure and trying to grow local retail business, Kopp said.

“It’s an effort to recognize the City of New Albany and [that] it is a place where a lot of people can come down and gather in one central location,” he said. “And [people] get to see some of the new things that are coming into the downtown area as well.”

There are plenty of new attractions to see, nearly 50 businesses have opened in the city within the last 23 months.

To let the attendees know about some of those local shops that have opened up, a new event called the Jingle Walk was held this year.

“We have seven wineries and one brewery at eight different retail locations,” said Jala Miller, volunteer with Develop New Albany. “The whole idea behind the Jingle walk is...to get people in retail stores, see what New Albany has to offer for holiday shopping and that kind of thing.”

Not only have more retailers jumped on board but the craft vendors — set up in the YMCA — have more than doubled from about 14 last year to 38 this year.

One of the vendors set up for the first time was Patti Cianci, owner of Patticakes and Pies Cafe.

Cianci’s cafe, which is specializing in homemade desserts, breakfast, lunch and catering, was previewing many of her products that will soon be available when she opens her East Main Street location in a few weeks.

The timing and the event was a perfect opportunity for her to gain some exposure.

“You get to meet people in the community, let them know that we’re here...and [that] we’re all homemade,” Cianci said. “To let people know that I’m coming in four or five weeks...and to kind of let them know I’m [already] out there catering, especially this time of year.”

So far the extra effort is paying off.

“It’s definitely busier...I think we got the word out better this year,” said Courtney Lewis, volunteer with Develop New Albany.

Miller agreed and was a little surprised by the amount of people that had already visited the craft booths early in the day.

“I’ve been pretty amazed,” Miller said of the turnout. “I think we’ve had probably 200 people walk through already. We actually had 200 tickets pre-sold [for the Jingle Walk] before the event started.”

Even with the focus on getting local residents to see what New Albany has to offer, the real spirit of the event is still in line with the true giving spirit of the holidays.

J.O. Endris Jewelers sponsored two toy giveaways to local children, along with many of the downtown business decorating their stores.

Develop New Albany provided the lights that will adorn the downtown shops, put up with the help of the fire department.

Along with the decorations, things like free carriage rides were being offered throughout the day.

The holiday spirit was in full bloom and was be capped off with the lighting of a Christmas tree at the corner of Market and State streets at 5:45 p.m.

And of course, Santa Claus was on hand to flip the switch.