Every year adults of all ages turn into kids again when Christmas time comes around. We love to pull out the decorations, break out the same Christmas music we listen to every year and sip hot cocoa with our kids and grandchildren. Traditions like these make the most hectic time of year more meaningful. For Ada citizens, one of those favorite traditions is the down town Christmas parade on Main Street.
Beloved for twenty-two years, it was one of the first lighted Christmas parades in Oklahoma. “It was an idea of the original Main Street board,” said Main Street Director, Cari Gray. “They wanted to have something different and after visiting other town’s parades decided to make it a lighted display and give it a theme.”
Every year businesses, churches and local agencies plan three months ahead to make the most creative and elaborate floats that relate to a theme. They cruise past judges the first Thursday in December for a chance to win the trophy and delight their audience with humorous and touching scenes.
This year the theme is a “Spirit of Giving.” A local bank created a float to show the care packages they send to soldiers and needy families. The Salvation Army created a float showing an Angel Tree with families gathered around the tree. “Those are just a few that will reflect meaningful giving,” said Gray, “every year Ada Main Street”.
Over the years, Gray remembers some memorable floats. “One year we had Vision Bank do a very professional looking Frosty the Snowman. It was built of steel caging and rode on top of a large, zero turn radius, commercial lawnmower with the employees dressed as snowmen. Years ago we had a stretched limousine with a monopoly theme that was fun. The Santa float which signals the end of the parade is the signature creation of Ada Main Street.
The parade proves to be a night of entertainment and refreshment while local businesses wine and dine their guests with an open house. Beginning at five o’clock, they serve hot cocoa, cookies, and candy and offer a special Christmas sale to their guests for that night. “A lot of businesses unveil their Christmas window that night and one business offers live modeling or animation every year. It gives them something to do between five and seven o’clock.”
Choirs stroll along and sing favorite carols, dressed in bright costumes from the holidays gone by while patrons remember that Ada’s downtown was, and still is, a happening place. “It’s an opportunity to get people here who don’t come downtown and forget that we have a viable downtown area with businesses and restaurants that they need to come back to.”
Guests cannot only predict an unforgettable evening but the weather as well. “No matter what the weather was the night before, we’re guaranteed to have a brisk thirty six degrees,” laughed Gray. However, people turn out faithfully undaunted by the chill and warmed with coats, blankets and hot beverages. For those who can’t turn out, “Cable One airs the parade live and shows the footage throughout the month for the elderly or parents with very small children who can’t make it.”
Gray believes the parade fosters a sense of community as people of all ages come together and share in the magical wonder of Christmas that the parade inspires. “Every age group is in awe of something and that’s what’s fascinating about it is there’s something for everyone. You can see it strike a memory in someone’s face or touch their heart. Everyone is the same downtown on that night.”
This Christmas as young and old celebrate the joy of Christmas and make their way to the parade, they will celebrate a town full of people who reflect the true meaning of Christmas in the spirit of giving.
