Our Daily Show Interview! Grafton Winter Lights Parade on Saturday!
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GRAFTON - The City of Grafton will host its fourth annual Winter Lights Parade.
At 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, community members are invited to flood the streets of Grafton and enjoy this annual holiday parade. The parade route will travel down Water Street and end at The Loading Dock, and organizers promise it will be a lot of fun.
“Bundle up, bring the family out and enjoy,” said Paula Jameson, who oversees the Enjoy Grafton Facebook page and helped organize the parade. “All it takes is teamwork. That’s all it has taken, just the town uniting and saying, ‘We’re going to do this together, and we all have something to offer and bring to the table here. As long as we shine together, we all shine bright.’”
The parade officially starts at 5:30 p.m., and organizers ask participants to be completely ready and lined up by 5 p.m. There are enough spots on Water Street that people can park their cars along the street and watch from their vehicles, though Jameson warned that every float will be throwing “candy or swag.”
Jameson and Dan Ebbing, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, explained that the parade started as a joke between locals. A few people draped their side-by-sides in lights and went on a pub crawl throughout Grafton. But over the years, it has grown into a full-fledged parade, with over 100 entries so far this year.
Those who want to participate with a vehicle or float can email enjoygrafton618@gmail.com for more information about entering the parade and the Best in Show competition. Jameson encourages people to go above and beyond in their designs, noting that this parade is a great chance to do something unique.
“We were adamant about that, because if you’re going to ask people to stand in the cold for a parade, especially kids, you want to make it a spectacle, a show, something that entertains them, and you don’t want to see a thousand of the same thing rolling by,” she explained. “So we were adamant, at least I was, about stressing to every entry that the more unique, the more crazy, the more out-of-the-box, the better.”
After the parade, Jameson and her family will stop by The Loading Dock for ice-skating and s’mores. Ebbing, on the other hand, will head to Third Chute, where some Graftonites will enjoy a Winter Solstice party. Winter Solstice party attendees are encouraged to wear their best luau-themed outfits for a Best Dressed contest.
“The Winter Solstice is the shortest daylight day of the year,” Ebbing said. “That means after the 21st of December, the days are getting longer. We’re getting closer to summer again. So we started it, just a group of friends, several years ago. I’m usually wearing shorts and Hawaiian shirts and hitting the bars.”
Ebbing also encourages participation at Grafton’s New Years Eve celebration, where he will be shooting off fireworks at 10 p.m. on Dec. 31. Ebbing and Jameson both promise a lot of activities and events in Grafton in the near future, starting with the Winter Lights Parade this weekend.
“For years, Grafton has had that party vibe. And we love that, but we really are trying to showcase that we are the home for families, especially with this parade,” Jameson added. “There’s so much more coming. I can’t wait for 2025 for you all to see what’s coming down the pipe for Grafton.”
There are several lodging options still available for this weekend in Grafton. For more information about the Grafton Winter Lights Parade, visit the official Facebook event page. To learn more about Grafton events, check out Enjoy Grafton on Facebook. RiverBender.com will be streaming the Grafton Winter Lights Parade at RiverBender.com/video.
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