Especially for kids: November 2007 Archives

DILLSBORO'S LUMINARIES are ready to light! This year's traditional holiday celebration, complete with lighted luminaries and decorations throughout the town, will be held on Friday and Saturday night, from 5 to 9 p.m. on two weekends: Dec. 7 & 8, and Dec. 14 & 15.

The town's shops, inns, and restaurants will be decorated for the season, and will offer cocoa, cider, and small treats for visitors.

Santa will be available for photographs with the kids, inside Town Hall, at the corner of Front Street and Depot Street.

Over 2,500 small white paper bags filled with sand and lighted candles will adorn the streets and sidewalks. Musicians will be stationed at nearly every shop, and look for a group of musicians to be jamming around the firepit at the Riverwood Shops.

Admission is free. Parking is available in town, at several lots around town, and at the Monteith Farmstead, just off of Old Hometown Place Road.

Dress for cold weather, and bring the entire family!

For more information, see www.visitdillsboro.org or call Teresa Dowd, Dillsboro Merchants Association Chairman, at 586-5700. Additional coverage is online in an article by the Sylva Herald (click).

The events coincide with the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad Christmas trains, featuring the Polar Express rides. For information on train rides, call 1-800-872-4681 or visit www.gsmr.com.

The Downtown Sylva Christmas Parade is coming! Don't miss it. The parade is this Saturday, Dec. 1, starting at 5 p.m.

The event is a downtown tradition, hosted by the Downtown Sylva Association. This year's parade could be one of the biggest ever, and will features some new elements:

* All parade vehicles and floats will be required to be decorated in a holiday theme.

* To encourage the implementation of DSA's theme, "Home for the Holidays," a cash prize will be awarded after the parade to the winner of the decoration contest.

* No candy or treats will be thrown from the floats and vehicles themselves, but walkers beside vehicles can dispense candy and goodies to onlookers. (Safety and insurance issues prevent throwing the candy from moving vehicles.)

This year's route begins on Scotts Creek Road, with vehicles and floats coming down Asheville Highway and picking up walkers and the Smoky Mountain High School Marching Band at the United Community Bank parking lot, just before the intersection with Highway 107.

The parade then turns toward downtown on Main Street towards the old courthouse. The parade ends at Mark Watson Park on West Main Street.

Shops and restaurants are encouraged to stay open for business in the evening. Many will have special holiday sales and activities on parade day. Sylva's town decorations already are gracing light poles and the traditional tree at the base of the steps of the old courthouse.

Also, the "Pictures with Santa" 2nd annual fundraiser for the Bridge Park Project takes place from 2 to 5 p.m., before the parade. A photo with Santa in the courtyard of Restaurant 553, next door to the Sylva Herald on Main Street, will be taken by local photographer Terri Clark and developed by Livingston's Photo. Both are donating their services, so all profits go towards the Bridge Park project, the park to be built on the town's municipal parking lot on Railroad Avenue. The cost for a 5x7 photograph is $15. Extra photos are available for $5. Each photo includes a holiday frame card.

Drivers should be aware that Main Street will be closed on Saturday, starting in the early afternoon. Traffic will be rerouted to Jackson Street, where vehicles can follow Evalina Street back down to Main Street and then continue west on Main Street towards Highway 107.

Sylva and Jackson County police and emergency personnel will be onsite to help direct traffic and parking, which will be available at the site of the future Bridge Park, at Town Hall and at the public parking lot across from Mill & Main Restaurant.

It promises to be a good year for a Christmas parade, so be sure to come and bring the entire family! Remember to dress warmly.

For more information, call DSA Director Sarah Graham at 586-1577 or write her at info@downtownsylva.org.

Additional coverage by The Sylva Herald is in their online article (click here) about the parade. (The Sylva Herald is not affiliated with Jackson County Magazine.)

The Jackson County Grounds Department has been working hard -- like Santa's elves -- to prepare for Christmas. Elaborate decorations are being installed at the old courthouse, in Sylva.

Windows will be lined in lights, with two lighted Christmas trees on the balcony above the front entrance. More lights will be stationed around the courthouse and along its stair steps.

The Grounds Department has placed 40 Frasier fir trees around the courthouse. The trees were harvested from a tree farm in Little Canada.

Shown above is Johnny Bradley of the Jackson County Grounds Department placing a ribbon atop one of the trees on Thursday.

Many of the fir trees can be seen in the photo below.

(From a press release.)

The Trail of Light Drama Team once again brings to life the song “Mary Did You Know?” by producing the popular interfaith play of the same name.

“Mary, Did You Know?” begins with the birth of Jesus and follows the child as he grows into an adult.

Actors include Henry Wong from NCCAT, as Gabriel; Britney Acosta from Smoky Mountain High, as Mary when she was a young girl; Jim Harbin of Ela will be Joseph; and Polly Huff of Cullowhee is playing the adult Mary. Sarajane Melton, also of Cullowhee, plays the midwife; Ron Huff from Cullowhee will be Herod. Dawn Fincher of Cullowhee will be the narrator.

A child “Angel Choir,” ages 3 through 9, will be featured, as well as 7 dancers who will perform three dance scenes.

Jesus will be seen as a newborn baby, at 2 years old (David Sluyter of Dillsboro), at 12 years old (Billy Durning of Cullowhee) and as an adult (Caden Painter of Maggie Valley).

Songs featured include “Ave Maria,” “Mary Did You Know?,” “O Holy Night,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “Joy to the World,” “We Four Kings,” “I Wonder as I Wander,” “Go Tell it on the Mountain” and “Sweet Little Jesus Boy.”

Assisting Amy Ammons Garza (Sylva) with direction is Dianne Yount, producer is Etheree Chancellor and choreographer is Suzanne Kehrberg, all of Cullowhee.

Pre-show entertainment starts one hour prior to the play. Special guests will provide old-time gospel. Performers include Jeanette Queen Schrock (youngest daughter of the late Mary Jane Queen) on vocal and autoharp, and Ron and Julia Thompson of Alarka, on vocal and guitar. Others spotlighted will be Henry Wong, guitar and vocal; Ally, Elizabeth, and Tonya Vickery, flute and piano; Britney Acosta, vocal; Sarajane Melton, vocal; Teresa Eberly, vocal.

The 53-member cast and crew are drawn from churches of different faiths spanning three counties -- Cullowhee Baptist Church, Cullowhee United Methodist, The Summit of Cullowhee, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints of Franklin, Fall Cliff Baptist from Webster, Webster Baptist Church, East Sylva Baptist Church of Sylva, God’s Holy Tabernacle of Sylva, St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Sylva, First Baptist of Waynesville and Lakeview Church of the Nazarene in Lake Junaluska. A troop of seamstresses and background workers of many faiths also supports the cast and crew.

Come share the Christmas story on Friday, November 30th (pre-show at 6 p.m., show at 7 p.m.) or Saturday, December 1st (pre-show at 5 p.m., show at 6 p.m.), at the Cullowhee Baptist Church on the campus of WCU, next door to the Hunter Library.

Hot chocolate and hot cider will be provided on the lawn after the productions, courtesy of the board of Catch the Spirit of Appalachia.

Admission is free.

For more information, call 828-631-4587.

(Shown above: representing the Angel Choir are (left to right) Brittney Lee Collins, Casey King, and Ally Vickery.)

Shown below: from King Herod’s Court are (left to right) Ron Huff, Phillip Huff, Naomie Edmonds and Fred Harris. Shown below: Irene Hooper will be playing Anna in the Simeon scene.