2007 Seasonal and Holiday TN Town Photos (Chattanooga, Johnson City: work, sick, house)

[Grizzlybear34]

Tridad - Nicely done! Thanks so much for sharing.

[beachbyrd]

I must add, I must share!!! Those kids are called the Choo-Choo Kids, they are from the magnet school - Center for the Creative Arts and they are all ages from K-12. They were amazing, dancing and singing out there in 35 degree weather without warm clothes. I was impressed by them, for sure! Also, I must say I did not know Santa was such a good singer! The fireworks, though the video only shows a few seconds, were just wonderful and they were not even 4th of July fireworks. Makes me wonder how awesome the ones for the 4th are here.

I have never lived in a city that does the Holiday kickoff up so big! Our parade is next weekend and today they are doing breakfast with Santa. At the end, Santa said, something like: "For all of our dear Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah and a blessed Ramadan for those who celebrate it, and happy holidays for those who do not believe in anything in particular, and for those who believe like I do, have a very merry blessed Christmas and please, go visit the live nativity over there!"

As they were singing, I'll be home for Christmas, I must say, I was tearing up and thinking, I finally feel like I will be home for the holidays for the first time in a very long time. I love this city and am so happy to be able to call it home and feel that in my heart!

[beachbyrd]

And for those that want to see stuff we did not get, here is our newspaper's video of the evening (it includes some of the boat show that we did not get):

Video: Grand Illumination - Chattanooga Times Free Press - Breaking News in Chattanooga, TN. Classifieds and Top Stories

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by beachbyrd

I have never lived in a city that does the Holiday kickoff up so big! Our parade is next weekend

Our Christmas parade is next weekend, too. The tree lighting is Friday (11/30) night (with the band) and the parade in Oak Ridge is Saturday morning (10:00A). Also, Lake City's Christmas parade is Saturday afternoon (1:00P) and Clinton's Christmas parade is Saturday evening (6:00P) so technically if you are a paradeaholic and live in Anderson County, on December 1, you go parade wild.

I'm thinking the parade times are staggered because Santa Claus can't be in 3 places at once.

[beachbyrd]

Definitely, we gotta give ole' St. Nick a break, he's got a big night coming up!!

[Grizzlybear34]

Keepin' this thread alive because the season is upon us. I know starting now there will be a lot of parades and light festivals. Please post your pics here so us less fortunate can see what you see. LauraC - thanks for starting this thread.

Thanks.

[LauraC]

I understand in our town that it's tradition for the parade people throw candy at the kids as the paraders pass by...well, maybe "to" the kids not "at" the kids.

The last parade I went to was a St Patrick's Day Parade in Baltimore and the last one I marched in was a Memorial Day Parade back when I was a Brownie during the Jurassic era. But, I never even heard of a Christmas parade and here in Tennessee practically every town has one. I'm pretty psyched about ours.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by SPLIT

LC: Will be on "Working Vacation" so someone else will have to cover the "DAYTON Horse /CARRIAGE parade.

What? What's this WORK business? There is a carriage parade and you won't be our Man On The Scene?

[TriDad]

SPLIT could be one of Santa's elves, dontcha know?

[LauraC]

Want to share some photos from our Oak Ridge Christmas Parade. It was a true small town parade, my first here. All I can say is things like this Christmas parade make me glad I live here. The section of the parade route I chose to stand on had the shopping center parking lot behind me so most people viewing the parade on this section of the Turnpike (toward the end of the parade) parked in that lot and were standing on the same side of the street that I was.


I'll post some photos here in 2 or 3 posts and if you are interested you can view all the others I took on a slideshow on Photobucket. After you click on this link, click on "View as Slideshow" to see all of the photos:

LauraCapo/Oak Ridge Christmas Parade - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The army headed the parade and Santa Claus brought up the rear. People walking and people in cars tossed candy to the kids watching the parade.

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