Parade of Lights

Residents from all over Mountain Home lined up on American Legion Boulevard for this year's Holiday Parade of Lights organized by the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce/Retail Merchants Committee.

The theme for the parade was "Christmas Around The World."

The parade featured several international floats including the local ATV Club designing each of their ATVs after Christmas in countries like Sweden, Russia and the Netherlands.

A total of 25 floats/general entries took part, representing different entities from all over the community, ranging from the Girl Scouts, Optimist Ag Group, the Mountain Home Police Department, the Mountain Home Church of Nazarene, United Metals and Moxie Java.

Mountain Home Mayor Tom Rist was in attendance, serving as both a parade judge and the master of ceremonies at Triangle Park.

Rist was joined on the panel by fellow City Council members Russ Anderson, Alain Isaac and Richard Urquidi.

The floats were scored on a scale of 1-10 based on theme, effort, lights and showmanship. The floats were judged in two categories, General Entry and Best Float.

For Best Float, the prize for first place was $500 and the prize for second place was $250. For General Entry, the prize for first place was $250 and the prize for second place was $100.

The winners for this year's parade were:

Best Float

* 1st Place--Jovial Jerry's

* 2nd Place--First Church of Nazarene

General Entry

* 1st Place--Optimist Ag

* 2nd Place--ATV Club

Before the parade, residents braved the cold weather by donning coats, gloves, blankets and purchasing glo-sticks from Idaho Independent Bank, Hedda's Gifts and Brown Wrapper.

The parade featured floats that were well-decorated and lived up to the theme. Several of the floats featured children singing various Christmas carols and throwing candy canes to the viewing audience, while spreading the Christmas spirit in the process.

The highlight for every child in attendance for this year's parade was, of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus, who concluded the parade by being driven by fire truck to Triangle Park with Santa's trusty reindeer perched at the top of the ladder.

Once the fire truck stopped at Triangle Park, Santa and Mrs. Claus exited to a sea of waiting children yearning for the opportunity to tell Santa what they want for Christmas this year.

As Santa and Mrs. Claus took their place at their sleigh, the fire truck raised its ladder and Santa's reindeer flew into the night sky.

When Santa and Mrs. Claus, sat down, a line of children almost as long as the park itself took their places eager at the chance to see the yuletide couple.

While the children were waiting, the Mountain Home Junior High School Cheerleaders who served as Santa's Helpers handed out candy canes. The eighth- and ninth-grade cheerleaders were led by their coach Teresa Custer.

"I think the parade was great. I think they had a lot of fun and it was a great way for them to show their support for the community," said Custer.

"It's pretty awesome. It's better to be in the parade, than not being in the parade, " said cheerleader Kadie Summers.

"It's nice to see the looks on all the kids' faces," said cheerleader Kaelee Gyllensog.

"It's cool to do this and be a role model for the younger kids," said cheerleader Kylie Pickens.

Rist welcomed Santa to the park and cued the timing of the lighting of the Christmas Tree, a tree that included over 1,200 lights and a five-foot Star of Bethelem topper that the Chamber purchased last year.

D&D Tree Services volunteered its time to help decorate the higher points of the tree with the children's ornaments and also stringing up the 1,200 lights.

"I enjoy the parade, it's nice that we can help the community," said D&D owner Jason Tindall.

The tree also featured decorations from local children that included Christmas cookies, Christmas trees, snowflakes and perhaps the most unique decoration, tin cans that were painted red and held bells inside each can.

During the event, Christmas music was provided by Davis French, who put on a holiday CD for the guests to enjoy.

"It's always a good time, I've done this for a couple of years now and it's just nice to do this for the community," said French following the parade.

The Mountain Home Masons offered hot dogs and hot chocolate during the parade, and by the end of the night the Masons had handed out over 250 hot dogs and 144 cups of hot chocolate.

"We love being a part of this. It's a good way for us to give back to the community," said John Lawicki representing Elmore Masonic Lodge No. 30.

Rist and Toni Noland, Retail Merchant Committee Chairman, shared their thoughts on this year's parade.

"This event gets bigger and better every year. This year's was well attended and I felt that the floats were outstanding. I urge people to come out for next year's parade," said Rist.

"I'm really happy that everyone came out for the parade. It was a wonderful turnout and I hope that everyone had a great time," said Noland.

Noland thanks all the volunteers who took part in the parade, Rist and the city council for serving as judges, D&D Tree Services, and the Elmore County Search and Rescue unit that lined up the parade, parked the cars and handled traffic control.

"We couldn't have done it without them," said Noland.