Duluth Loves Local’s Duluth Winter Village event at Glensheen is awesome. In fact it has become one of our favorite events that happen at Glensheen. There are definitely some ways to get yourself prepared for the best experience possible.

1. Come on Sunday.

Last year, Saturday had 3 times the attendance of Sunday. That is right, 3 times the traffic. If you come Sunday, you have the same activities as Saturday, with dramatically less traffic. Nothing changes from day to day.

2. There is food.

There is great food at this event. Some of Duluth’s best food vendors from Duluth’s Best Bread to Northern Waters Smokehaus to Sir Benedict’s Tavern are at Duluth Winter Village this weekend. The food is reason enough to attend this event. Come prepared to eat.

Duluth Best Bread

Sir Ben’s

3. There is booze.

This is not a craft fair. This is a winter village — think Octoberfest, Craft fair and Christmas put into a blender. With a seasoning of hyper local.

In short…there will be alcoholic drinks available for purchase. From Bloody Marys to a Bent Paddle Black. No need to sneak your bottle of Peppermint Schnapps in.

Bent Paddle Black and a Bloody Mary

4. Take a tour of Glensheen.

For many of the Glensheen insiders — Christmas is their favorite season. The entire 39-room mansion is decorated from the basement to the attic, in fact even the carriage house horse stables are decorated for Christmas. We joke, we are the “indoor Bentleyville”.

5. Take the shuttle, Lyft, Uber, Taxi, your hotel shuttle or the city bus

One of the easiest ways to lessen your stress is to park at the UMD Lot B or East High School parking lot and take the shuttle down to the event. Shuttles will be running on a continuous loop and are free to all.

Shuttles start at 8AM and end at 6PM

Also, you could take a Lyft, Uber or a Taxi.

If you are at one of our region’s great local hotels, good chance their shuttle bus will bring you to the event.

If you want to take the bus we are on Line 22, which drops off pretty close to Glensheen.

6. Check out the Glensheen Gift Shop

We at Glensheen pride ourselves on supporting local vendors, so in our gift shop you will find local items. Local makers such as Forging Community who is a local non-profit blacksmith makes small metal tools and objects. Which we, of course, sell. Things like handmade tent stakes to bottle openers to marsh-mellow holders. Plus, there are plenty of other favorite Duluth products.

Last one!!! 7. Come in the late afternoon

(4–5pm is ideal).

The big rush is in the morning and during lunch, but it tapers off dramatically near closing time at 5 pm. Once again, the experience is still the same, but less people. If you are really looking to miss the crowds, come Sunday around 4:00 pm.