ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
There is a chill in the air, which means it is almost time for the annual Downtown Liberal Christmas Parade.
The 2025 Downtown Christmas Parade will be Saturday, Dec. 6, with everything going through downtown, and the theme for this year is 'Oh What Fun It Is to Ride.' 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. The parade will start at 6:30 that evening. 2025 marks the parade's 25th anniversary, and as coordinator Earl Watt tells it, it will be particularly special.
“To help make this year’s parade really special, we will be giving away a classic Alfa Romeo Spider convertible. The car has gone through some restoration this past summer, and we're looking forward to seeing who walks away with that, and there are multiple places where people can register for that drawing,” Watt said. “We're expecting a good crowd, and someone will be walking away with a new car. This is the parade's 25th anniversary, and all of us on the committee have looked back with a big 'WOW' about reaching that milestone. We've been doing this parade since 2001, and I remember that first year, our sales manager Larry Howell came in and invited me to a downtown business meeting, and they said at that meeting the Christmas parade wouldn't be happening. We knew we would hate losing that, so we ended up taking it over – that first year, we gave away a 1960s Cadillac convertible. Larry Howell was really a key player with us taking over the parade, and we haven't missed one since then, which we're proud of. We've given away cars and other big prize packages to people in the community, and we're really happy with this year's car prize – it's got a fresh paint job and other updates, and it's a really, really fun ride.”
Discussions about giving away a car started a while ago, Watt said.
“I started looking back at some numbers to figure out when we had started that, and the last time we gave away a car was in 2021. I realized this would be the parade's 25th anniversary and wondered what we could do to commemorate that. We've given away some pretty good prize packages in the past few years, but 2021 was the last time we gave away a car, and we knew we had to do something special for this year,” Watt said. “This car became available rather out of the blue and before I was officially ready to start looking, so I went and checked it out and made sure everything was kosher, and it ended up being the perfect car to give away this year. There's been some updates and upgrades done to it, and it's now ready to cruise and be someone else's pride and joy. It'll definitely be hard to give the keys away.”
Reaching a milestone of a quarter of a century is really special to coordinators, Watt said.
“We love the holiday season and want to do what we can to give back to the community. Like I say every year, 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,” Watt said. “The holidays are for bringing people together, and this is our chance to come together as a community and take in everything. And with the giveaway, there are two rules – you have to register, and you have to be present when your name's drawn. We're looking forward to the parade and seeing the community make it special, and the community has done its part in making it bigger and bigger every year. I've already gotten multiple phone calls and emails asking when the parade is and what's the theme and all of that, so there's definitely a lot of interest from people who want to be out there that night. It's also great the City of Liberal is using that night as an open house to talk about the future of Adventure Bay Water Park, we're happy to collaborate with them on that. I love being at the 3rd Street fountain that night, because it's just a perfect backdrop to kick off the parade and the holidays. It doesn't matter if you've had a good year so far or if you've had some struggles – you'll definitely walk away from the parade feeling better and feeling ready for the holiday season.”
The parade will feature multiple floats and other entertainment, and Watt said he hopes the community will turn out and enjoy it all.
“There are a lot of us in town who absolutely love Christmas and the whole holiday season. I grew up in Liberal and knew it was Christmas when the displays went up in the windows of what used to be Chaffin Hardware. I knew it was Christmas when I saw lights being put on the poles,” Watt said. “Liberal has always meant Christmas to me, and I always get excited for the holiday as soon as everything starts going up. If love the holidays and want to be surrounded by the Christmas spirit, come out to the parade. We've already got multiple floats entered, and I'd love to see every float just totally decked to the nines and brimming with the Christmas spirit. The parade is a great time for everyone to come together and see friends and family on Kansas Avenue and take in the parade. We'll all celebrate with family on Christmas Day, but the parade is a chance for the public to come together and celebrate together and see all the different floats. If you're as big a Christmas fan as I am, you look forward to getting out in public and seeing all the decorations and hearing all the Christmas carols and everything else, so how could you not be happy after that?”
Overall, Watt said, he is excited to see how this year’s parade turns out.
“I want to thank everyone who's been part of this the past 25 years, whether you've helped with coordinating everything or put a float in,” Watt said. “The community continues to impress me every year and make the parade bigger and better for everyone, and I can't wait to see what kind of creativity we'll see this year. The parade is so entertaining every year, and I have no doubt this year's parade will be more of the same.”
