Every year just before Christmas thousands of people gather in downtown Enid for the chance to win one of the best Christmas presents possible: thousands of dollars.

This year’s Candy Cane Cash prize drawing will be 9 a.m. Dec. 8 in David Allen Memorial Ballpark. Participants must be present at the drawing to win. This is the fourth year for the promotion, which gives away cash to people who shop in Enid. The program is a partnership between Greater Enid Chamber of Commerce, which puts up $5,000 of the prize money, and Enid News & Eagle.

This year $7,500 will be given away. There will be one $500 prize, two $1,000 prizes and the $5,000 grand prize. Shoppers can collect tickets for the prize drawing at any participating Candy Cane Cash merchant. They will receive one ticket for every $10 purchase up to $400 per store.

April Danahy, chamber board president, urged shoppers to keep their tickets in order by color and number. When each number is drawn, the winner will have one minute to reach the podium with the winning ticket.

“It’s a good project to get people Christmas shopping. The further reward is to keep holiday dollars in Enid. They already are getting great merchandise and also a chance to win $5,000. It’s a great deal,” Danahy said.

The program basically is a hometown shopping program, said Dennis Warren, News & Eagle advertising director.

“It’s designed to keep shoppers at home by paying them to shop at home,” he said.

There are 39 participating merchants this year, and they are located all over town.

Candy Cane Cash has proven successful in keeping people shopping at home. The first year, some merchants away from the downtown area reported early morning shopping on drawing day was down, Warren said. Later in the morning, business began to pick up, and by the afternoon merchants reported they had topped the preceding year.

“That tells me people came downtown to see if they won, then went shopping,” Warren said.

Last year there were 400,000 Candy Cane Cash tickets awarded, which indicates $4 million in retail sales.

Kevin Tuohy, assistant manager at United Supermarket West, said the idea is to get people inside the store and give them the opportunity to get good Christmas spending money. It works well for his store.

“We love Candy Cane Cash,” he said.

Jon Blankenship, chamber executive director, said the chamber has participated since the inception of the program. The program has been a good one for a public relations standpoint for the chamber, he said, and is important for the community.

“It provides extra motivation to shop at home whenever possible and keep dollars in the local economy. That was the objective and it has worked well. We are looking forward to it another year,” Blankenship said.

He said many dollars flow into the local economy and stay in Enid. Those local dollars turn over many times and have an impact on local merchants and the employment base.

“Those dollars turn over two or three times as opposed to going to competitor cities. We’re also talking about drawing dollars from outside Garfield County into the economy. It helps solidify and position Enid as a major retail hub of northwest and north-central Oklahoma,” he said.