Here in Texas, autumn has a way of hanging back and waiting around, letting summer linger, but it arrived this week with cold and rain and the promise of holidays around the corner. While Christmas Day never changes, the feeling of Christmas is early this year. Corsicana’s annual Christmas Tree Lighting will be Friday, November 22 – a week before Thanksgiving. This isn’t as early as Starbucks, with their red holiday cups signaling when we can begin celebrating (they even have a website with a countdown
https://www.countdowntoredcups.com/), but it’s earlier than our traditional celebration, and there’s a good reason why.
Thanksgiving and Christmas are holidays when families come home; from jobs in other states, Military on leave, college campuses on break. Some of our homes are filled with the energy of grandchildren and the dining room table expands with extra leaves. One tradition for some is to take a holiday photo and the three-story Christmas tree and Downtown Pocket Parks are favorite locations. The Parks and Recreation Department will begin decorating next week and the tree will be illuminated before Thanksgiving so that everyone can see and enjoy it, even if they aren’t here for the lighting and celebration. This year, the tree lighting will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., November 22 on Beaton Street, with live music, train rides for children, complimentary food and drinks, photos with Santa, and I’ll have special guests from CISD to help me with the countdown. Beau, Navarro College’s English Bulldog mascot will be making an appearance to remind everyone about “Beauville”, a new holiday craft fair taking place at the College on December 3.
For me, this time of year wasn’t about slowing down and enjoying the holidays, it was about the grit and determination of football playoffs, which is why I am delighted to have the newly-named Heritage Bowl Division II Football game here for the third year, December 7. This year the game will be televised to more than 20 million households. That evening, Downtown will shine bright with the Festival of Lights annual parade.
The city’s final holiday event is Mimosas at the Market in the morning and a Wine Stroll in the evening on December 14. Downtown stores stay open late until 7 p.m. Many of these events and activities call for extra hours by shop owners and volunteers working hard to promote business and create fun events. The next time you stop in at your favorite store or see one of the many citizens who volunteer their time to organize these events, please thank them for making Corsicana a great place to live, during the holidays and throughout the year. I hope to see old friends and new on November 22.