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City Prepares For Celebration
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The ‘Parade of Lights’ will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12, as the City of Escalon offers up its annual Christmas on Main celebration.

Hosted through the city’s Chamber of Commerce, the vendor booths will open at 3 p.m. in the city’s Main Street Park, with a variety of handmade items, commercial booths, food and beverages and more. Music and dance performances will be featured throughout the festivities as well and there will be fire pits set up in the park for making s’mores, along with wagon rides.

“It is planned for Dec. 12, if it rains we will have it on Sunday, De. 13,” noted Robert Swift, coordinating the light parade.

A special feature this year is the use of four separate Christmas trees, rather than one holiday tree on stage.

“As a fundraiser for the Chamber’s scholarship program, we are calling these the ‘giving’ trees,” Swift explained. “For a donation of $1 per ornament, you can decorate the ornament any way you want, and hang it on a tree. All four trees will be decorated, and after that we will make a connection with each of the elementary schools, each tree will be given to a family in need in each school.”

The festively decorated, unique ‘giving’ trees will go to Dent, Farmington, Collegeville and Van Allen schools to benefit one family at each of those sites.

Swift said it’s a great addition to the downtown city celebration and he’s hoping each tree is overwhelmed with ornaments, crafted by visitors to the event.

“It’s a unique way of fundraising for the scholarship program and helping out somebody in a tight spot, those that can’t afford a tree,” noted Swift.

With the booths open at 3 p.m., there will be plenty of time to browse and shop before settling in for the parade, which steps off at 5:30 p.m. and requires all the entries to have some type of holiday lighting.

Santa Claus will arrive at the end of the parade and be available to visit with youngsters and have his picture taken with them.

Those interested in hosting a booth should contact Debbie Murken at 402-0505 and Swift is the contact for parade entries, 595-5013.

“It’s always a lot of fun and you can get some of your Christmas shopping done too,” Swift said of the festivities.