When I toured this year's whopping five downtown pop-up shops on Friday, most of them looked like this:

Nonetheless, tomorrow is the official christening of the shops, made possible through a web of partnerships between the Portland Business Alliance, Portland Development Commission, the Downtown Marketing Initiative, and many more. In case you don't recall from last year's inaugural go-around, the concept is to bring local designers and artisans onto a level playing ground during the downtown holiday shopping crunch, so that buying local will be every bit as convenient as popping into the big chain shops. The fact that the pop-ups are in un-leased retail storefronts will also hopefully revitalize them in the eyes of would-be renters, and get some of the empty windows downtown filled in. Sam Adams will be at the Flurry pop-up (750 SW Yamhill) to "unwrap a surprise from the North Pole" and officially kick off the holiday shopping season, which—get this—includes free parking at SmartParks every Thursday in December for cars that enter between 4-6 pm. Eeee! ... Anyway, there are a ton of events happening in the shops over the next two months, so check MOD for updates on all the pop-up happs.