W’burg events get people into the Christmas spirit

The Christmas spirit seems to be plentiful this year in Williamsburg. Let’s look at a few examples.

Williamsburg Main Street Manager Nannie Hays informed me after the parade Saturday night that judges were going back to look at homes and businesses again in an attempt to break a tie in some of the categories for the annual “Williamsburg Feels Like Home Christmas Decorating Contest.” Wow.

In the 14 year history of the decorating contest, this is the first time I have ever heard of that happening.

I thought Saturday’s “2018 Feels Like Home Christmas in a Small Town” Parade went great. It was a little colder than I would have liked, but there was no precipitation and temperatures weren’t awful.

This year we had about 50 parade entries and lots of parade participants ranging from school groups to churches and local businesses.

You have to love it when people in a town have that much Christmas spirit.

Saturday was full of Christmas-related events in Williamsburg.

The morning started with the annual Christmas bazaar, which took place at the Williamsburg Tourism Center. While not every table was sold out, there weren’t many empty ones. The event featured a wide array of Christmas ornaments, wreaths, door decorations, etc.

Saturday afternoon before the parade brought some other holiday festivities.

The Whitley County Kindergarten Readiness Program hosted a “How the Grinch Stole Christmas Walk” on the courthouse lawn, complete with book panels that both the old and young could read and browse. Of course, his greenness, The Grinch, made an appearance and posed for pictures with local youngsters, who also received a free Dr. Seuss book.

Also before the parade, the Whitley County Extension Fine Arts program hosted the “Christmas Trees from around the World” event at the fine arts center across the street from city hall. It was neat to see the various decorated Christmas trees, including one that local youngsters were painting.

After the parade, the town ornament exchange took place at Bill Woods Park where free hot chocolate and apple cider were handed out.

My congratulations to the organizers of these holiday events. You did a great job and created quite the atmosphere for people to enjoy the Christmas spirit.

If you missed these events, there are a few other upcoming holiday events that you may want to check out Thursday.

If you are looking for something uplifting this holiday season, you might want to go to the Williamsburg Walmart Thursday evening where the annual Shop with a Cop program will take place.

This is one of the more positive events that I cover each year.

The smiles on the children’s faces are priceless.

Also, Williamsburg Independent School’s “Christmas in a Small Town,” which had been scheduled for this past Sunday, has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday and will take place in the J.B. Mountjoy Gymnasium. It was postponed due to the weather.

The event features performances by choirs and bands at the school in addition to various Christmas related skits.

This is always a fun event complete with lots of good music.

There will be a chili supper from 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday in the school cafeteria. The cost is $5 and includes chili, chips, drink and dessert.

Before I conclude this column, let me take a minute and brag on the Whitley County High School Colonel Players, who performed the Christmas-themed play “Junie B Jones: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (P.S. So Does May)” this past weekend.

As always this group did a great job with some entertaining material. It’s especially impressive to see the kind of shows these kids and their teacher, David Sweet, put on when you consider they don’t even have their own auditorium.

This weekend’s play was held at a local church, and many of the group’s plays are held in the high school cafeteria.