ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Planning is under way throughout many parts of Liberal with the holidays, and that includes the annual Downtown Christmas Parade.
The 2024 Downtown Christmas Parade will be Saturday, Dec. 7, with everything going through downtown, and the theme for this year is 'Candyland Christmas.' This year's parade route will be going from south to north – participants will line up and start at Trail Street (by the railroad tracks), go north and then turn off at 6th Street.
“We decided to do the route that way for this year to help keep everyone a little tighter together and closer to the stage so they can hear the announcements of the winners and everything else we'll be talking about,” coordinator Earl Watt said. “And people should be keeping an eye on the Leader & Times soon, because there will be announcements about where people can register for prizes, and all of that is still being finalized at the moment, but it's coming up on us really quickly. We're running slightly behind our usual schedule as far as getting things going, but we will definitely have everything going, and we're really looking forward to continuing the tradition of the Christmas parade.”
Watt said he is looking forward to seeing the floats the community members come up with.
“There have been multiple people who have really stepped up and done a great job in putting together amazing-looking floats for the parade each year, and I'm looking forward to seeing how people interpret that 'Candyland Christmas' theme we're doing this year,” Watt said. “We'd also like to see more performing floats, that's something we haven't seen as much as we'd like to – if you've got a church choir or someone who likes to sing and wants to do a song when they're stopped in front of the stage, we'd love to see those. Last year, we were really blessed to have the Eisenhower Middle School band play for the community, and we'd love to see that again. We've also had dance groups perform when in front of the stage, and we'd love to have that again. If you've got a good idea for a performance float, whether it's a children's choir or some other group, I would encourage them to go for that.”
Overall, Watt said, he hopes to see many entries for this year’s parade.
“The floats themselves don't have to be super fancy or on the level of the Macy's parade – if you can do that, great, but it's not required. If you want to decorate your car or trailer, or if you want to just ride through the parade and advertise your group or business, that's great too,” Watt said. “The main goal is to help bring the community together to help celebrate the holidays, and we welcome veteran float entrants and new entrants. And we encourage you to also talk to your friends and neighbors and get them involved with it because as the old saying goes, the more, the merrier. The parade is only as good as the people of Liberal want it to be – the more care and effort put forth, the better it will be. When we started this parade back up around 2001, we had a good turnout, and it's only gotten better as time has gone on, and we're proud to have sponsored this parade for as long as we have. And we'll continue to do so as long as the community wants it. The holidays are for bringing people together, and this is our chance to come together as a community and take in everything. We've never had the same parade twice in all the time we've sponsored this parade. Something else I'd like to see is, since we've got some fantastic bakeries in town, maybe they'll want to put together a life-sized gingerbread man or something like that, I'd love to see that happen. I've been really impressed with the floats throughout the past few years, we've seen so much creativity from everyone who's participated. We've had individuals and civic groups and businesses put together some amazing floats throughout the years, and I hope to see that continue for this year. I'm surprised every year because everyone brings something new and creative, and it's always fun to see what people come up with.”
Watt added it would be a good idea for groups and individuals to sign up sooner rather than later.
“Even though November just started and the parade seems like it's a long time away, go ahead and start thinking about what you want to do as far as design and all of that, and go ahead and commit,” Watt said. “I emphasize this every year, there is absolutely no cost to enter a float in the parade, and you might even come away with some prizes that night. Think about your interpretation of 'Candyland Christmas' and put something together to help bring the spirit of Christmas to the community. Everyone at the parade is going to be looking at your float, so why not do it in style and help people in the community feel that holiday spirit? You get to bring some of that joy of the season to everyone, so absolutely don't wait until the day before the parade, start thinking about it all now and how you'd put everything together.”
Turnout has been good at other parades this year, and Watt said he hopes to see that trend continue.
“The past few years, we've helped support the Sons of the American Revolution and Daughters of the American Revolution groups for the 4th of July parade, and it was either this year or last year that had 50 floats entered, which was amazing,” Watt said. “We definitely want to see as many floats as possible entered for this year, and we want as many people as possible to participate. Like I said, there's no cost to enter, and there are some great prizes that will be given out, so why not come out and be part of the parade? Come out with the rest of the community and start your Christmas celebrations with the parade. Liberal really goes all out along Kansas Avenue with the decorations because the businesses put their Christmas products in the windows, the City of Liberal staff puts special lights on the lamp posts, and now the Chamber of Commerce has its Wrap A Lamp competition, so the lamp posts are also all decorated up. Kansas Avenue is always set up for Christmas in time for the parade, and it's a great backdrop for everything. Liberal is a Christmas town and everyone goes all out, and I always say it's not really Christmas unless the parade happens, because so many people are involved in making it happen. The parade is a great night to bring everyone together to just enjoy a nice evening because the spirit is in the air and everything is all decked out. This is how Liberal celebrates Christmas.”
