Friday, April 26, 2024
For years, Pastor Larry Dickson and community volunteer Julia Pannell were driven to make the annual Country Christmas Night of Lights Parade the best it could be.
This year they will be driven again, but in a flashy red convertible.
The two have been asked to serve as grand marshals for Friday night’s procession around the square as a way for their service to be recognized and honored.
It was Dickson who came up with the idea of having, not just an annual Christmas parade, but a parade that paid homage to the true Christmas story – the birth of Jesus.
That was 27 years ago, in 1991.
Other local pastors liked the idea and with the help of former square merchant Dianne Rawls, later Dianne Davis, Dickson put together the first of what has become known as the Country Christmas Night of Lights Parade.
The event started with just a handful of floats. In recent years, that number grew to as many as 15 decorated floats, plus a number of lighted antique vehicles, members of the sheriff’s posse on horseback, bands and other participants.
More recent crowd estimates have reached as high 6,000, according to Dickson, who is pastor of Faith Assembly of God church.
Dickson said that Pannell stepped in to help him several years ago after Davis and her husband moved to New Mexico.
“We did it for the next three or four years,” he said. “I was just pretty well worn out and I asked Julia to take it.”
Pannell did, but soon felt that it was too much for her with everything else she was doing, Dickson said. Pannell is active in a number of community endeavors.
Pannell said she began helping to distribute candles to parade participants in 1995, the year after she and her husband Bob moved here.
About 10 years ago, she joined the committee that plans the event and eventually served as chair.
For years, the parade was spearheaded by the Lake Granbury Ministerial Alliance. The Historic Gran-bury Merchants Association (HGMA) has taken over those duties.
SHOPPERS AND CAROLERS
Dickson said that the parade, which is always held on the Friday night after Thanksgiving, has helped put holiday shoppers on the square.
HGMA spokeswoman Brenda Hyde said she has ordered 3,000 candles to hand out to parade participants this year.
Part of the tradition is that the candles are lighted and then the crowd sings Christmas carols together.
The parade will start at 6:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “Joy.”
Although the main purpose of the parade is to celebrate Christ, Santa – an important Christmas figure for children – isn’t forgotten.
He is always at the end of the parade. His arrival – and the arrival of the Christmas season – is celebrated by city crews flipping the switch on thousands of Christmas lights and holiday displays in nearby Shanley Park.
Both Dickson and Pannell said they are honored to serve as grand marshals. Both are proud, too, that Granbury is one of the few communities that holds a Christian parade at Christmastime.
“If people who care about what it means don’t continue with it, it goes away,” Pannell said. “It becomes just a regular parade, which is wonderful – but that’s not what it was started for.”
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