Christmas Marches Into Town

The tree lighting will take place at 7 p.m. today at the JMC Wallace parking deck on Rosemary Street.

Robert Humphreys, executive director of the Downtown Commission, said the tradition started about 10 or 15 years ago. This year, a tree was bought and lifted onto the deck with a crane.

"We decided that it would be neat to have school choruses and school musical groups come out and sing songs," he said. "It's a community celebration."

The parade will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, its route running from the post office on Franklin Street to Carrboro Town Hall. It is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and The Chapel Hill News.

Humphreys said that this year the parade will have nearly 3,000 participants and will include 125 to 130 units.

"They'll be 10 professionally built floats sponsored by various businesses in the community," Humphreys said. "And then there will be hand-built floats by club organizations, scout groups and church day-cares."

There also will be performances from school bands including Chapel Hill High School, East Chapel Hill High School, Hillside High School in Durham and Grey Culbreth Middle School.

Every year, the committee that organizes the parade selects a grand marshal to lead the parade based on work and good deeds performed in the community.

This year, the committee chose Irene Briggaman, a well-known volunteer in the Chapel Hill area.

"(She was named) in recognition of her many years of service to the community," Humphreys said. "If you look (volunteer) up in the dictionary, there's a picture of Irene."

Among other things, Briggaman has helped raise money for local schools, participated in blood drives and begun the Street Scene Teen Center. She also started the Restaurants Sharing V (5) plus V (5) Percent program, which raises money for the Inter-Faith Council through restaurants donating a portion of their proceeds for one day.

"It's an honor as far as I'm concerned," Briggaman said. "I enjoy celebrating Christmas, so I was happy to say yes."

Humphreys said the parade also will contain other musical acts, including performances from the Triangle Youth Ballet and a jazz band called Kitty Box and the Alley Cats. But Humphreys said there will be something special added this year.

"One thing that's unique is that we're going to have two Texas Longhorn steers that will be ridden, along with horses and a donkey," he said.

Humphreys said planning for the parade is a yearlong process. "We start working next week to start working on next year," he said.

But around the first of October, Humphreys said the committee starts to "kick into high gear."

He said there is usually a high turnout to watch the festivities.

"It's a way to remind everybody to get in the spirit of the season and herald the beginning of the holiday."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.