W’Burg Christmas parade slated to take place Saturday

Christmas and parade lovers rejoice, as the City of Williamsburg’s annual Feels Like Home Christmas Parade is slated for this Saturday in downtown Williamsburg.

The parade is set to begin at 6 p.m. and will take place along Main Street starting at Williamsburg Independent School and concluding in front of the old Whitley County Courthouse.

There will be a variety of floats and other spectacles throughout the parade, with the event being wrapped up by Santa Claus at the very end.

There will be three categories for judging this year, consisting of church, school and business. The first-place winner in each category will receive $150, second place gets $100 and third place gets $50. All school band/choir programs that participate also get $200.

There will be one final participation meeting Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Williamsburg Tourism and Convention Center. Williamsburg Roddy Harrison said that anyone who has yet to sign up for the parade, is still welcome to attend the meeting. The meeting will include staging information for the night of the parade.

Harrison asked that attendees stick around after the parade to participate in several additional events at Bill Woods Park. Of those events is the annual town Christmas ornament exchange, which has been going on for more than a decade.

To participate, bring an ornament to Bill Woods Park with your name written somewhere on the ornament or its package and leave it on the table that will be setup for the exchange. Then, just simply take an ornament that someone else has left.

Harrison said that the exchange is a yearly tradition he always looks forward to.

“That’s one luxury we have being a small town, is having an ornament exchange,” said Harrison. “You’ll have some kind of special connection to someone else in Williamsburg you may or may not know. It’s just something special.”

For those who have lost a loved one and would like to keep their memory alive, the town Christmas tree will be decorated with memorial ornaments. These ornaments should include the name of the person that the memorial ornament is being hung in honor of.

The memorial ornaments are collected each year and kept to be put back on the tree the following year.

There will also be free apple cider and hot chocolate available. Additionally, the winners of the annual Christmas decorating contest are expected to be announced as well, if the votes have been tabulated.