Bozeman residents excited as decorations transform Main Street for the holidays

Bozeman, Montana – The Tuesday following Thanksgiving, Bozeman’s downtown is transformed into a winter paradise.

Owner of Silver Annies Jeanie Arnold takes pictures in front of her establishment on Main Street and Black Avenue as holiday lights are strung across the pavement.

“I absolutely love our Bozeman spiders. And I know there’s a big debate,” says Arnold.

It’s a yearly argument in the town about whether they should be called squids or spiders.

“Oh, they are the Bozeman spiders, they’re the downtown Bozeman spiders,” says Arnold.

In single-digit weather, Bozeman firefighters and volunteers hurriedly load and lift the Christmas trees and garlands.

“Its cold and we’ve had some zip ties break trying to get the garland up but for the most part it goes up pretty easy,” says Bozeman Fire Engineer, Tim O’Tool.

Arnold serves the volunteers a steaming cup of coffee to mark their midway point.

“There’s been years in the past where I brought some of the fireman coffees and I was thinking about going and doing that here,” says Arnold.

The holiday mood grows stronger as each junction comes together.

“I mean, if you’ve gone to other places over the holidays, you realize that these decorations are really old and very, very unique to Bozeman. You don’t see these kinds of things. So they just bring me to the Christmas here with,” says Arnold.

On Saturday, December 3, the lights are turned on for this year’s Christmas Stroll.