Holly Days Ties Together Marathon City's Gathering Places. Main Street Is Building a New One.

At 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12, Holly Days starts at the Marathon City Fire Department, 408 Market St., and runs until 7. A tractor carries people between venues all evening, with stops for soup, Santa, a live nativity, a petting zoo and a trail ride. At 7:15, after the official hours end, the community tree is lit on "the 400 Block."

For most of its history, Holly Days has worked by connecting places Marathon City already had: a firehouse, a heritage building, a retreat center and a church. This year a new kind of place is going up downtown. The 400 block of Main Street sat as a gravel lot for more than a decade. It now has construction underway on a clinic, a grocery and a community event space. The village's December evening and its downtown are both changing, and this Holly Days falls right where they meet.

The evening by the clock

The Village of Marathon City's Holly Days listing sets the schedule. The times that matter most are the performances and the tree lighting, because those happen once, in one place.

The village lists the full set of activities as pictures with Santa, a live nativity, soups, chilis and desserts, crafts and face painting, a petting zoo, the high school choir and band, and trail rides. Soups and desserts come from the community. If you'd like to make something for the table, the listing asks you to contact Sheena Hart at 715-443-3233, who is also the contact for general questions. Updates go out on the Holly Days Facebook page.

Last year's evening spread across four buildings

The village listing points to a tractor route map. The best description of how that route played out comes from the Marathon Area Business Association's 2025 Holly Days post. It describes four locations, each with its own role:

• Marathon Fire Station: community-made soups and desserts, crafts, face painting, and music from the Marathon High School choir and band
• Marathon Heritage Center: Santa, plus Christmas trees decorated and sponsored by local businesses
• St. Anthony's Retreat Center: a trail ride through the lighted woods, a petting zoo and the live nativity
• St. Matthew Church: holiday music, crafts and snacks

The Heritage Center is at 301 Main St. MABA's 2025 post names the fire station, the Heritage Center and St. Anthony's as the tractor-ride stops. It lists St. Matthew Church as the fourth event location.

Last year also had a Holiday Passport Challenge. Visitors picked up a passport at any of the four locations and collected a stamp at each one. A completed passport went into a drawing for gift baskets donated by MABA members. The village's 2026 listing describes the same mix of activities. For this year's exact stops and any passport details, check the Facebook page as the date gets closer.

A fire station, a heritage center, a retreat center and a church are buildings that serve the village all year, and on Holly Days they make up one evening. The retreat center's part runs deep. In 2025, St. Anthony Spirituality Center posted a volunteer request through Wausau Pilot & Review for someone to play a Roman centurion, acting out a census scene for families arriving on the tractor ride.

An event that adds a piece every few years

Holly Days has changed over the years, and you can trace the changes in MABA's and the village's past listings.

In 2019, MABA invited people to visit Santa at St. Anthony Spirituality Center on Dec. 14. In 2021, the event ran from 5 to 7 p.m. with a chili cook-off and hot dog supper, the high school band and choir, tractor rides, a live nativity, crafts and face painting. In 2023, MABA described three areas, with tractor rides to all three, plus a soup dinner and Santa photos. The village's 2024 listing served pasta dishes and desserts and added a petting zoo and trail rides. In 2025 there were four locations and a passport, with the tree lighting at 7 p.m. at the 400 block.

This year's listing starts at 4 p.m. and moves the tree lighting to 7:15. That makes the evening an hour longer than in 2021, and over those years the event has grown by bringing more of the village's existing buildings into it.

The gravel lot in the 400 block of Main Street

Downtown has had less to add. Dr. Taryn Stittleburg, owner of Stittleburg Restorative Health Care, told The Business News in September that the 400 block of Main Street site had sat as "a gravel lot for, I think, over 10 years, right in the middle of Marathon City." She added that "it was supposed to be a grocery store, maybe seven years ago."

That lot is now under construction. The project broke ground on June 19, 2026. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation awarded it a $250,000 grant and called it the first large-scale new investment in decades in Marathon City's historic downtown. The building will hold three things:

1. Integrate Functional Health, a clinic that grows out of Dr. Stittleburg's current practice. It will run as its own business and take up most of the building's nearly 9,000 square feet.
2. Whole Roots & Co., a farm-to-table grocery planned to offer fresh vegetables, dye-free foods, supplements, beauty products and quick ready-to-eat meals.
3. A community rental space inside the grocery. Dr. Stittleburg told WEDC she hopes to use it for classes on growing and preparing food, cooking classes and other events.

The Business News calls it a private $3 million venture and reported in September that the complex was slated to be fully functional in February 2027. In the same article, Dr. Stittleburg said:

"The opportunity to develop an entire street block in the heart of this part of downtown – I don't know how anybody could say 'no' to that. And it's needed."

The village has a stake in the block as well. Its July 2026 tax increment district report lists a development agreement signed in 2026 with Stittleburg Restorative Health Care. It also names a village-owned lot in the 400 block as a possible second phase. For residents, the takeaway is that downtown is getting a grocery and a room the community can rent, in a place that has been empty for years.

Planning the evening of Dec. 12

Holly Days happens at several buildings at once, and the band, the choir and the tree lighting each happen only once. Here is one way to fit the whole evening into three hours plus the lighting:

1. Arrive at the fire station around 4. Get soup while it's hot and let the kids do crafts and face painting first.
2. Ride the tractor before the 5:00 band set, or stay for the band and ride afterward. Last year, the lighted-woods trail ride, petting zoo and nativity were at St. Anthony's, and Santa was at the Heritage Center on Main Street.
3. Be back at the fire station by 6:30 for the high school choir.
4. Walk to the 400 Block for 7:15. The choir sings during the tree lighting, which ends the night.

Dress for the cold. MABA's 2025 tips noted that some activities may be outdoors or in unheated spaces. When you head downtown for the tree, the Main Street project in the 400 block, slated to be fully functional in February 2027, is close by.

Holly Days is a good reminder of how much happens within a few blocks of Market and Main. If you'd like to talk about what the new Main Street construction could mean for your corner of Marathon City, or you're just curious how downtown is changing, Joleta Wesbrock is happy to have that conversation. Call or send a note before Dec. 12, and we can compare what we each see on the walk to the tree lighting.