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Christmas parade, tree-lighting, storytelling to be Tuesday
The ghost of Christmas past will visit City Lights Bookstore Tuesday night (Nov. 30) once Sylva's holiday parade has finished winding its way through town.
After all the candy canes have been tossed and Santa has bellowed his last "ho, ho, ho," the historical associations of Jackson County and Webster will host a discussion at the store about the ways Christmas has been celebrated locally throughout the years.
"Come and share some hot cider and your stories and memories," said Joe Rhinehart, president of both associations. "The lively music and floats of this year's parade will still be in your mind, but they may bring back thoughts of earlier times."
One memory sure to be discussed is the series of Christmas poems penned in the 1940s by Western Carolina University founder Robert Madison. Rhinehart recalls looking forward each year to receiving the poems on small, printed cards.
"Not only was Madison the most important person in Jackson County's educational advancement, he was also a noted writer, historian, musician and poet. Still treasured are the Christmas cards that he sent out to the county with his always-beautiful holiday poem. Many of us still have these cards," Rhinehart said.
The memory session will end an evening of festivities that will begin at 6:45 p.m., when the WestCare Hospice tree-lighting ceremony will begin on the Courthouse steps. Sylva's First United Methodist Church choir will sing, chaplain Ron Allen will speak, and families served by Hospice in the past year will light candles for their loved ones.
The tree's switch will be flipped and its lights start to glow at 7 p.m., the same time the parade will begin its march toward the Courthouse from the Community Service Center.
Members of Sylva's Garden Club will serve as grand marshals for the procession, which this year is themed "A Candy Cane Christmas."
The route will lead floats and marchers down Scotts Creek Road to Skyland Drive, turning right at McDonald's onto U.S. 23 before heading west on Main Street toward the Courthouse.
Float riders will begin lining up at 6 p.m. at the Community Service Center and end at Mark Watson Park. Walkers will meet at First Charter Bank and finish up at the Courthouse, said parade coordinator Betty Foxx.
For more information about the parade, call Foxx at 506-4595. For details about the tree lighting, contact WestCare Hospice volunteer coordinator Judy Fashing at 586-7875. To learn more about the memory discussion, call City Lights at 586-9499.
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