Shopping, wagon rides and street musicians part of Oxford’s Christmas festival

A longtime holiday festival in small Sumner County town owes its beginnings to a resident who wanted her Wichita friends to visit the vintage Victorian home she’d purchased and the new business she’d opened in Oxford.

This weekend marks the 41st year that Oxford – a town about 40 miles south of Wichita on Highway 160 – puts on its annual Christmas in the Country community festival. About 1,500 residents call Oxford home, according to Kaye Dee Potucek, the owner of Primary Plants and Floral since 1982 and one of the festival’s organizers.

Barbara Rider was a Wichita transplant to Oxford when she started an open house after Thanksgiving at her Carriage House Gifts store. Over the years, more businesses begin hosting open houses, with other activities being added through the years.

Now the festival serves as way for area business to help shoppers and visitors catch the holiday spirit with a small-town feeling, with visitors coming from various parts of south-central Kansas and even Oklahoma, Potucek said.

“You can’t leave town without the holiday spirit,” said Potucek. “It’s all around. We’ve had some people come practically every year.”

Even residents help roll out the holiday cheer by opening their decorated homes for tours. This year, three homes located at 317 S. Iowa, 3 Honeysuckle Court and 615 N. Michigan are on the tour.

“They’re not professionally decorated so people can feel like they can go home and do it,” Potucek said.

The $2 festival admission buttons, along with an information brochure, are available at the main Sumner Street businesses – ranging from an antiques store to gift shops and boutiques – and other participating festival stops. The holiday-themed buttons are made by the Oxford High School’s entrepreneurship class. The school’s entrepreneurship restaurant program also runs the Old Mill Restaurant, a family-style restaurant located inside a historic flour mill that will also host a vendor market. Other dining options include Angie D’s and the Oxford Christian Church serving homemade chili, vegetable soup and pie.

Activities include wagon rides from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days, street musicians from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, a visit by Santa at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, and a two-day market with vintage, antique and handmade gifts. A tree-shaking demonstration happens at the nearby Pecan Patch, 1 mile east of Oxford, at 1 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The Sunflower Shrimp Farm about 2.5 miles south of Oxford is open for tours 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Shopping, wagon rides and street musicians part of Oxford’s Christmas festival."