GOSHEN -- In a downtown where shopping is typically a Monday-through-Saturday activity, Goshen businesses are trying something new for the holiday season: Sunday business hours.

More than 15 downtown businesses will be open on Sundays between this weekend and Dec. 20. While for most stores the Sunday hours are only an arrangement for holiday shopping that sprung from a suggestion from a meeting held by the Goshen Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Goshen Inc., at least one business owner says he's considering sticking with Sunday business after the season is over.

Out-of-towners have referred to Goshen as a "ghost town" on Sundays, said Kare Andersen, manager of Olympia Candy Kitchen, 136 N. Main St., one of only a few businesses on or near the city's Main Street that already has Sunday hours.

About two months ago, the Goshen Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Goshen Inc. pitched the idea of collectively holding Sunday hours to local businesses. Downtown Goshen Inc. President Gina Leichty said Julie Freshour, owner of Jules Boutique, 130 S. Main St., held Sunday hours last holiday season and was planning on it again, but suggested it would be beneficial for everyone if other stores did it, too.

"I think that the other store owners wanted to be mutually supportive of each other," Leichty said.

The Sunday hours will kick off with a celebratory open house complete with music, clowns and horse-drawn wagon rides at noon Sunday. While the open house has been held annually on a Sunday in previous years, the regular Sunday hours are new.

Olympia Candy Kitchen, a family-owned business, is proof that Sunday hours can work for at least certain businesses. The store has existed since 1912 and held Sunday hours for most of those years, Andersen said. When it has opened on Sundays, it's always been one of the only businesses downtown open, he said.

The family decided it needed a break about 10 years ago and started closing the restaurant and candy shop on Sundays, he said, but started doing Sunday business again in February 2008. While the Sunday sales don't stack up to what he remembers as a kid washing dishes when people would line up out the door, the place is starting to get a regular Sunday client base again.

Myron Bontrager, owner of the Electric Brew, 136 S. Main St., said customers have asked him throughout the two and a half years he's owned the shop why he was never open on Sundays.

"My remark was always, 'I need one day where nobody calls me and tells me the ice machine's not working,'" Bontrager said.

But when he heard the suggestion from Downtown Goshen and the Chamber, he decided to try it early. Bontrager started opening the coffee shop on Sundays during the middle of October.

Originally, the Electric Brew's Sunday hours were supposed to end after the holidays, but business has been so good that Bontrager's thinking he might stick with it, at least until summer.

"I don't think there's any question that we'll keep going," Bontrager said.

While Bontrager, a former pastor, said his desire for a day of rest wasn't really motivated by religion, Elizabeth Dragoo, manager of Ten Thousand Villages, 206 S. Main St., said religious objections made the decision of whether to participate in the Sunday hours a difficult one.

The store is a nonprofit program of the Mennonite Central Committee. She said the store decided to try it and see if the sales that come from the Sunday hours warrant the extra time before deciding whether to do it again next year.

"Some people on our board are not in favor of businesses doing business on Sunday in general," Dragoo said.

On top of that, she said, it's difficult to ask store clerks -- mostly volunteers -- to give up a Sunday to help out.

Staffing is an issue for Danae Hochstedler, owner of The Nut Shoppe, 204 S. Main St., who employs only five people other than herself, mostly part-time. An extra day is a lot to ask of such a small staff, and she's not sure yet whether it will make much of a difference with her specialty business. She said that on First Fridays -- downtown Goshen's monthly block party -- a lot of people walk into the store, but they're usually just browsing.

But Hochstedler is participating in the Sunday hours, despite the challenges.

"I think it's important to at least try it once and see how it goes," she said.

Leichty, who also co-owns Eyedart studio gallery, 213 S. Main St., said she thinks most businesses are using the extra hours as an experiment. She said Eyedart will also hold Sunday hours and see if they want to make long-term modifications on the hours.

Dragoo said she has a hard time envisioning a scenario where Ten Thousand Villages would be open on Sundays permanently. Most other businesses in the area would need to be open that day, too, to help bring business, and she said she doesn't think that would happen for a long time.

But, she added, the city has surprised her before.

"If you'd have asked me 10 years ago what downtown Goshen was going to look like now," she said, "I wouldn't have known that either."

DOWNTOWN GOSHEN BUSINESSES WITH SUNDAY HOLIDAY HOURS

* Balloon Express/Merle Norman, 125 S. Main St.

* Better World Books, 118 E. Washington St.

* Constant Spring, 219 S. Main St.

* Electric Brew, 136 S. Main St.

* Eyedart studio gallery, 213 S. Main St.

* From Scratch Pet Bakery, 107 W. Washington St.

* Graber Designs Gallery, 208 S. Main St.

* Gutierrez Mexican Bakery, 122 S. Main St.

* Jules Boutique, 130 S. Main St.

* Maple City Market, 314 S. Main St.

* Mattern's Butcher Shop & Corner Deli, 201 S. Main St.

* Home Again, 115 W. Jefferson St.

* The Nut Shoppe, 204 S. Main St.

* Olympia Candy Kitchen, 136 N. Main St.

* Salon J, 130 S. Main St.

* Ten Thousand Villages, 206 S. Main St.

Most stores' Sunday holiday hours are from noon to 5 p.m., but they vary with each business.

DOWNTOWN GOSHEN HOLIDAY SHOPPING OPEN HOUSE

When: Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday

Where: Participating stores in downtown Goshen

Entertainment: Traveling musicians from Goshen High School's choir and orchestra, the Bev Templeton Quartet and the Bethany music department will serenade shoppers. The Goshen Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring clowns and free horse-drawn wagon rides.