For most Aggies, winter means it’s time to head home to rejuvenate and celebrate the holidays. But the season brings new challenges to local business owners, as their primary customers leave in droves. College Station’s assistant director of economic development, Brian Piscacek, said the region operates on a cyclical economy, with slow seasons oscillating between winter and summer.
“We all recognize it — from a government perspective, from a business perspective,” Piscacek said. “The presence of the students and the university is what drives our local economy.”
The Brazos Valley Council of Governments, an organization of local governments designated to address regional needs, found that local job postings steadily declined throughout November and December in both 2023 and 2024. 
To combat these economic dips, the city pours its efforts into tourism.
“In the Christmas months, we’ve got a signature attraction in Santa’s Wonderland,” Piscacek said. “ … So when the students are gone for Christmas break, you’ve got an opportunity to capture people who are coming for that activity and try to convince them to stay a night or two to experience College Station as a whole.”
Santa’s Wonderland is an elaborate Christmas lights display that attracts hundreds of thousands of customers annually despite being open only 46 days. The winter attraction also supports the community through partnerships with local charities. Last year, $20,000 was donated to the Fun for All Playground, a local playground designed to facilitate childhood development.
Piscacek said the city’s collaboration with Santa’s Wonderland is the beacon of its winter initiative to drive tourism.
“Through that partnership with them, we focus kind of generally on our Christmas in College Station campaign,” Piscacek said. “ … That’s highlighting hotel opportunities, unique retailers that we have here in town [and] a variety of events and activities.”
The city pushes Santa’s Wonderland as College Station’s winter trademark, but it’s difficult to determine whether other businesses profit from the visitors, especially more obscure restaurants. For Aaron Galceran, the owner of the local business Mochinut, a franchise that specializes in Korean street-style hot dogs, mochi donuts and boba tea, that’s especially true.
“As you can imagine, when half of your customer base is there versus not, there’s going to be a little bit of a difference,” Galceran said. “For a lot of people that are coming into town for Santa’s Wonderland or things like that, most of them are then going to go eat in Houston … Not that many of them are going to stop by a Mochinut in College Station.”
Galceran finds a silver lining in the slow season, though. He said that the downtime gives him room to work on marketing in preparation for students’ return in the spring.
“I find it to be a really unique opportunity that a lot of restaurants don’t actually get,” Galceran said. “ … I know the numbers are going to be lower, but that’s really given me some time to work on new menu items, additions to our storefront and then just work on a lot of marketing in the background so that when the students do come back we’ve got a whole program set up to do local events, profit shares and things like that.”
