SantaCon Comes To Massillon

SantaCon comes to Massillon for the 3rd year and 2022 promises to be bigger and better than ever. An all day event, SantaCon Massillon is your chance to dress up in your favorite Christmas garb and enjoy some the best that Massillon has to offer. There will be multiple locations with pictures with Santa, drink specials and shopping available. We had the chance to talk to the owner of The Sangria Stand and organizer of Massillon SantaCon Matthew Heck. The interview and transcript is below.

Matt Fantone: It is Mix 94.1, I am Matt Fantone, and Christmas is right around the corner, but you’re not going to have to wait long if you want to see the jolly old elf, the man in red, Kris Kringle. Papa Noelle. Father Christmas is coming to TigerTown. Santa Con is happening this Saturday, and I’ve got the organizer of the event on the phone with me, Matthew Heck. How are you today, dude? 

Matt Heck: Good, Matt. Good. Good. I’m excited to become with you guys. This is starting to develop into a fun thing happening downtown in Massillon. My wife and I, Dori Heck, she started this thing about three years ago; outside that little hiccup we had a couple of years ago, it is really starting to evolve into something.

Matt Fantone: So tell me about the start of all this and give me a little bit of background about what SantaCon is, because I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there who are like, “SantaCon, what is that?”

Matt Heck: In New York City, this Saturday in New York City as well as San Francisco, Orlando, Portland and then many of the cities that have come aboard. They will probably have, New York City, I know we’ll have close to 150 to 200,000 people dressed up as Santa to go into the street. 

Matt Fantone: So obviously spread across the country, and that’s a great thing to see. I mean, that holiday cheer, the holiday spirit is kind of what this month is all about. So all the way from San Francisco To New York to TigerTown. What can people expect this Saturday? What do they need to do to be a part of things? What is it all about in Massillon?

Matt Heck: So that’s the best part is ideally, what we wanted to do was bring that energy, that excitement and that fun to Massillon. We have a great community downtown. There’s a lot of businesses, and what we just needed was an old head to say, okay, here’s our day. Let’s have fun. So all day long, all the businesses downtown are participating, whether it’s just maybe it’s a special or something along those lines or they’re just open, but when you get involved, what’s happening is you can come down during the day, bring the kids. There are multiple things of Santa that are going on downtown. We will be having photos with Santa in front of Downtown Sangria Stand. We have a 1971 VW bus. Santa will be sitting inside there on the lip. Just come in, sit down with Santa, walk about. 

Matt Fantone: But you keep saying, hey, the daytime is for the families. And listen, I’ve got a family. I love my kids. I want to bring them out. But tell me about the night time. What’s happening then, dude?

Matt Heck: So the night time is going to be more driven around the house. So again, you’re going to have Alibi Benders again Downtown Sangria Stand, Paradigm, Margaritas, all the establishments, bar establishments, Hideaway has been a huge supporter. They’re all going to be open with drink specials, dressed in costumes and it’s just a walk out community and that’s what we think is so great about downtown Massillon.

Matt Fantone: Yeah, I mean it when I say it, that downtown Massillon and you could say the same thing about downtown Canton and even downtown Alliance, but downtown Massillon really has a lot going on for it. And if people haven’t been there, I think this is an excellent opportunity for them to get out there, go experience a little bit of downtown TigerTown and have some fun with the family, have some fun with Santa to get themselves on the naughty list or the nice list.I don’t know how they’re going to play their cards, but if somebody wants more information, if they want to find out how they can get involved, where can they go to go check things out online?

Matt Heck: Of course, Facebook. There is a SantaCon, Massillon. So the Santa Con Massillon is a group probably close to 1000 people that are members of that group.

Matt Fantone: There it is right there. Matthew Heck, the organizer of the Massillon SantaCon. Matthew, thank you so much much for being a part of things. Thank you for putting this on and yeah, merry Christmas, man and I hope Saturday is an absolutely stellar day for you guys.

Matt Heck: Thank you for your time for doing this for us.

Matt Fantone: We appreciate you, Matthew. Thank you so much and Merry Christmas, brother.