Poinsettia Festival

Huron Ridge Acres near Zurich will be holding its annual Poinsettia Festival in November. There will be changes to the traditional format, due to both the distancing requirements under the pandemic criteria and, more happily, an exciting renovation to the location’s retail space scheduled to be complete in time for the festival. Huron Ridge will be open all fall while a new checkout area is constructed, with a new exit and entrance, reconfigured gates and parking lot. 

Sandra Regier, part of the management team at Huron Ridge, explained that the company is expecting to extend its hours to include Sundays this year over the three weeks of the festival to accommodate everyone, while limiting the capacity to about 20 people at a time. “That’s the number that seems to work well with one-way aisles and two-metre separation,” she said.

For the first time, she is also expecting to book reservations so that patrons won’t have to line up outside in inclement weather to wait their turn. She is hoping to have the reservation system open by the beginning of November, and all information on how to book will be available on the company’s website.

The open houses have become a family tradition for many to enjoy the thousands of poinsettias set under hundreds of twinkling lights and dozens of candles with a background of Christmas music (sometimes live). Hours and weeks of planning and preparation go into creating the festive shopping experience.

Between its retail sales and fundraising sales of groups and schools, Huron Ridge Acres will sell around 12,000 poinsettias of more than 20 different varieties and the poinsettias will travel as far as Tobermory in the north to Kingsville in the south.

Huron Ridge Acres will open Wednesdays to Sundays, from Nov. 18-22, Nov. 25-29 and Dec. 2-6. To reserve your time, visit huronridge.ca.