Discover Warren Hosts 'Warren Wonderland'

Discover Warren will be turning downtown into a on Friday night, featuring caroling, food, drinks and sales from local merchants.

The first annual Warren Wonderland aims to keep shopping dollars local, while creating a fun event for everyone. Shoppers can pop in and out of stores for snacks, drinks and to do some local holiday shopping to enter Discover Warren's Gift Card Giveaway. For every $10 spent, shoppers are given a raffle ticket for the giveaway, worth hundreds of dollars to local restaurants and shops.

According to Katie Dickson, owner of the , the event is the brainchild of the Discover Warren board including herself, Keri Cronin from , Ron Cranwell from , Elizbeth Kiepert from , and Bridget Tierney from .

"The raffle idea came about because we wanted to have something fun in each store that would encourage shopping but also have a huge, awesome reward at the end," she said. "Plus, we wanted to make the event free for shops and restaurants to participate in, and gift cards cost nothing to donate."

Though the Warren Wonderland event is only one night, every Friday from now until Christmas stores will be open until 8 pm and a portion of the proceeds collected from each sale will benefit a local charity. This Friday, donations will be given to the Bristol Warren Education Foundation.

"Keri is on the board of the Bristol Warren Education Foundation so picking them as our first night's charity cause was a no-brainer," she said. "We think shoppers should know their money is going good places!"

Dickson says spirits are high and local merchants are looking forward to Friday night's event.

"I think everyone is getting excited," she said. "We've had shoppers in all week picking out what they're going buy on Friday night so that they get the most raffle tickets for their money!"

The Warren Wonderland will commence at 5pm on Friday and will feature caroling by the Vocal Ensemble.