Annual Twinkle Parade brings together community
The Twinkle Parade starts at the Dock Cafe and ends with the lighting of a 40 ft balsam fir tree. Jerry Helmberger explained, “Overall, it was a fabulous event and great for the city and the kids.”
A 40-foot balsam fir arrived Monday at Lowell Park and was decorated for the annual Hometown for the Holidays’ Twinkle Parade and Tree Lighting on Saturday Dec 5.
The tree was donated by Jeff and Michelle Hause of JG Hause Construction in Bayport and bought at Silver Creek Tree Farm. Tree farm owners Tom and Dianne Polasik said they reduced the price to $400 to support the community.
Reported in the Stillwater Gazette, Mayor Ted Kozlowski said the Christmas tree is becoming a “year-after-year tradition” and “looks like it’s something that we’re going to be able to keep going for a very long time.”
The Stillwater Twinkle Parade started at Dock Cafe at 4 p.m. with the Teddy Bear Band. People were able to regain the warmth in their body by busting out a few moves. During the band’s performance, twinkling accessories were being passed out to the children. Many kids already used their imagination and showed up wearing lights wrapped around their body from head-to-toe. Also, complimentary cookies, cocoa and coffee were enjoyed by many.
President of Convention and Visitors Bureau Jerry Helmberger said, “CVB is in charge of funding the advertising for the Twinkle Parade.”
Hundreds of children with their parents not too far behind followed Mrs.Claus who led the parade along the river to the Gazebo where there was the tree lighting ceremony. Afterwards, Santa made his immense appearance on a fire truck which was followed by fireworks in the night sky. The faces in the crowd were illuminated by the bright colors.
Helmberger explained, “Overall, it was a fabulous event and great for the city and the kids.”
The twinkle parade is just one of the many holiday traditions downtown Stillwater as part of the month-long Hometown for the Holidays event
According to Discover Stillwater, there is free horse-drawn victorian wagonette rides along the riverfront, biercycle caroling tours and the opportunity to reserve Christmas Eve Dinner or Day brunch at Historic Lowell Inn.
Historic Main Street Stillwater is alive with Christmas decorations, lights, and traditional events for a month-long celebration. Downtown Stillwater is really beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Jordan Fulin is a senior at SAHS. Other than newspaper she is also a part of Students for Social Justice Club and is a member of the Speech team. In her...
Alex Serier • Feb 16, 2016 at 10:26 pm
This was a great article. I did not know about this parade until I read this and I feel like it did a good job of delivering what the parade is and who and what appears in it. I thought this was a very nice article. I thought it was good to point out who advertises and promotes the parade and a bit about the tree and how it is a stillwater tradition.
Kleio Vrohidis • Feb 16, 2016 at 9:08 pm
Nice job, Jordan! I hadn’t heard about this event until reading this and the article was really descriptive. I felt like I was there while reading when you talked about how people danced during the band’s performance. Great detail and quotes too!
Rachel Zinkgraf • Feb 4, 2016 at 1:57 pm
The article was very informative of the event. It is creative how you used quotation marks to emphasize the phrases. I like that you kind of narrated the event in the article with such great detail.