Posted on

Charles City lighted parade highlights Holidazzle

  • Cort and Lanie Sanvig will be welcoming the public into Charles City’s own Saint Charles Brewing Co. starting Thursday. (Press photo James Grob.)

  • Cort and Lanie Sanvig will be welcoming the public into Charles City’s own Saint Charles Brewing Co. starting Thursday. (Press photo James Grob.)

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

‘Tis the season – even on the last day of November.

A festive holiday spirit lit up downtown Charles City Friday night as folks lined the streets to witness a lighted Christmas parade and celebrate Holidazzle.

There were Christmas goodies hidden all over Central Park for kiddos to find in the Hy-Vee Candy Cane Hunt after the parade commenced.

Hot chocolate, popcorn and pizza by the slice all kept Christmas carousers and carolers warm. The line that led up to the Santa House for the first chance to meet Santa weaved its way down the sidewalk of Central Park.

Holidazzle was organized by Community Revitalization, which also puts on the lighted parade every year. Close to 20 retail stores stayed open until 8 p.m., which gave Christmas shoppers plenty of time to purchase presents for their loved ones — or items for themselves.

“Community Revitalization has worked really hard with our volunteers to make this something that comes back every single year. We’re just really lucky,” said Emily Garden, Charles City events coordinator.

Pizza by the slice was sold by Cedar River Pizza, and a holiday hayride, courtesy of Swartzrock Implement, transported shoppers to several different stops around town.

The parade saw a record number of floats participate this year, according to Garden. She said the totaled jumped to 25 around Friday morning.

“I called Tom Bock, he’s our parade coordinator. We spent about 10 minutes strategizing —do we need to block another street or can we do just three columns?” said Garden. “We kind of scienced it down and said, ‘Everybody get nose to tail,’ and made it work. It’s amazing.”

Evonne Neupert brought her two-year old son, Caden, to the candy cane hunt. Evonne said Caden will be 3 years old in January and had never participated in the candy cane hunt before this year.

“I really like this little hunt that they did. That was really clever,” said Neupert. “I haven’t seen them do that before. We filled up a Santa hat.”

As far as a favorite float went, she said Caden liked the bright and shiny vehicles that flashed lights.  

“He’s always a huge fan of parades. The fire trucks and the police cars are his big thing,” she said.

Zach and Anna Beversdorf brought their children to see Santa Claus. Their son, Samuel, who is 4, was the first child to sit on Santa’s lap.

“He was very excited. He’s been knocking on the door since 5:30,” said Anna.

The Beversdorfs moved to Charles City two years ago from Cherokee, in northwest Iowa. Anna said Cherokee had a lighted parade around the holiday season but there was no Santa.

“It was a very nice parade. It was a lot longer than last year, I believe,” said Anna about this year’s Charles City event.

“We loved it — especially Rudolph,” said Zach.

New this year were awards handed out to floats in three different categories: ”Best Use of Theme,” “Brightest,” and “Community Revitalization President’s Pick.”

The theme this year for the Christmas parade was “Christmas Movie Night.”

Garden said she was happy that everyone pulled together to make the night a tremendous success.

“It’s a small community and people just step up and step in,” Garden said.

Winners of float awards:

• Best Use of Theme – CUSB Bank.

• Brightest – St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.

• Community Revitalization President’s Pick – Immaculate Conception Schools.

 

Social Share

LATEST NEWS