Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Holiday Light Parade brings Christmas cheer to Windham

By Ed Pierce

As the song says, “it's the most wonderful time of the year” and beginning this Sunday night, families in the Lakes Region will be able to personally welcome in the Christmas season during the Annual Holiday Light Parade in Windham.

Windham's Annual Holiday Light Parade starts at 5 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 1 and travels through the Windham school
campus before ending up at Windham Middle School. 
The public is invited to a Christmas party after the parade
inside WMS to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus.
COURTESY PHOTO 
Hosted by the Windham Fire/Rescue Department, the Windham Police Department, and the Windham Parks and Recreation Department, the immensely popular annual parade will kick off at 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1. Floats will line up and leave from Stadium Drive and the parade route travels throughout the Windham school campus before ending up at Windham Middle School.

This is the fifth consecutive year that this parade will be held in Windham. In 2020, the parade replaced the long running traditional Windham tree lighting event which was held every year at the Windham Public Safety Building on Gray Road.

The tree lighting ceremony had grown so much since it was first launched in 2016 that it was reaching maximum capacity for an event of its kind, and a decision was made by Windham Parks and Recreation to try a new activity. It turned out that the Holiday Light Parade launched in 2020 proved to be instantly popular with Windham residents and has been able to accommodate more local families and residents looking to participate.

For those seeking the best vantage point to view this year’s parade, it will be from the grounds of the Windham school campus where families will be able to gather and see all the floats and to wave hello to Santa and Mrs. Claus during the parade.

The parade will feature an array of brightly decorated Windham Fire/Rescue Department trucks and vehicles, along with Windham Police Department cars, a Windham Parks and Recreation vehicle, and Windham Public Works vehicles.

Each participating Windham vehicle in the Holiday Light Parade will be lit up with hundreds of brilliant electric Christmas bulbs and will include a wide variety of Christmas décor to usher in the season in style.

Following the parade, participants are invited to gather in the Windham Middle School gymnasium for a Christmas party to enjoy hot chocolate, listen to holiday music, make reindeer food and Snowman soup, work on some Christmas crafts, play some holiday games, and take photographs with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Handicap parking for the parade and the Christmas-themed party afterward will be available in the front Windham Middle School parking lot.

No registration is required to attend the parade, event organizers remind the public that no pets are allowed on the school grounds.

Those looking to attend, can find the parade route and the best spectator locations here: https://windhamme.myrec.com/info/activities/program_details.aspx?ProgramID=3044

For further details about the 2024 Windham Holiday Light Parade, visit Windhamrecreation.com or call 207-892-1905. <

No comments:

Post a Comment