Small Business Saturday will return to downtown Ironton on Nov. 30 and besides getting a chance to shop local, there will be a lot of activities including pop-up shops and of course, Santa Claus.

“There are a lot of things being planned, a lot of new things,” said Sam Heighton, the director of Ironton aLive, which is organizing the annual event. “We want to put more excitement in it and get people downtown. It’s a well-attended event.”

There will be favorite activities, including a chance to win $300 in Ironton Bucks that can be used at downtown shops.

“People get a passport that they can take around to the stores and get signed,” Heighton said. Those passports can be entered into a contest with the top prize being $300. “We will be giving out a total of $700 in Ironton Bucks prizes.”

Other activities include making cookies with the elves at the Iron Town Coffee Lab, trying to find the elf hidden at a downtown store, s’mores by Boy Scout Troop 106, the Santa Express trolley taking shoppers around Ironton and, of course, Santa and Mrs. Santa will be available for holiday pictures.

One new feature this year will be a number of pop-up shops.

This year’s Small Business Saturday chairperson is Amanda Cleary, the co-founder and co-owner of The Vault Market, and she explained that the pop up shops will be temporary stores that feature the works of local artisans, artists, craftspeople and others. The shops are there for just one day, giving people an opportunity to get unique items that they may not find every day.

She said there are a couple reasons they thought pop up shops would be a great addition to Small Business Saturday.

“There are some amazing people in our region that are very talented, but at this point in their business, they are not set up with a store front,” Cleary said. “We want to give them an opportunity to showcase for their talents and their items to get their name out there. The whole idea of developing our downtown is inviting more businesses to actually have storefronts. This is a fantastic opportunity for them to come, let the community know about them and hopefully, their business will grow and so will our downtown.”

All the details of the pop up shops won’t be revealed until later, but Cleary said are looking for people to sell poinsettias, wreaths and other holiday items.

“We are also wanting to have food trucks,” Cleary said. “And we have some live performances in the works, think holiday singing and that kind of thing.”

Anyone interested in being a vendor at a pop up shop can contact Ironton aLive or Small Business Saturday through their Facebook pages and fill out a vendor application or contact Cleary at amanda@thevaultmarket.com. Vendor setup is $25.

And for those who are less enthusiastic about shopping, the Party Place is offering a babysitting service for the day and guys can hang out there and watch The Ohio State Buckeyes play against their arch-rivals Michigan Wolverines when they meet for their big football game in Ann Arbor, Michigan.