City festivities kick off holiday season in Seguin
26 Dec 2024
Quality of Life, Downtown
Dalondo Moultrie | The Seguin Gazette
As the Seguin area stomps into holiday mode, the city’s annual Holiday Stroll Parade steps off as the catalyst to a season full of fun.
Curated each year by the Seguin Parks and Recreation Department, the parade kicks off the city’s yearly Holiday Stroll. The lighted parade is the highlight of a three-day celebration welcoming the holidays to Seguin, Recreation Superintendent Lindsay Hajek said.
“We love just being the first thing in the line up and of course having the tree lighting ceremony,” she said. “It’s the first day of the holidays.”
Holiday Stroll starts 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 this year with the parade, which marches down Austin Street from College Street to the Seguin Events Complex - Coliseum.
Leading the parade this year posthumously is the late Sonia Mendez, city councilwoman for District 2 before her passing earlier this year. Mendez’s family will represent her at the head of the parade, Mayor Donna Dodgen said.
“It felt right to select Sonia Mendez as our city’s lighted holiday parade marshal with her family representing her in the parade,” Dodgen said. “She participated in the parade each year, loved this community, gave so much of her time and attention to making us better that it just felt like the right thing to do, and I wanted to honor her service. What better way to do that than at our city’s holiday celebration?”
The parade continues to grow and will be the largest it’s ever been breaking last year’s record with this year’s 109 lighted float entries, Seguin Parks Director Jack Jones said. The Holiday Stroll Parade is nearing the size of the city’s annual July 4th Parade, he said.
“This year we’re bigger than ever,” Hajek said. “Each year it seems like we continue to grow.”
Pulling up the rear of the parade will be an annual entrant hopefully kids will be happy to see, said Kyle Kramm, Seguin Main Street and Convention and Visitors Bureau director. Santa will make his yearly appearance on a fire truck serving as a lighted float, he said.
Following the parade, Santa makes his way with the rest of the city to celebrate the annual tree lighting ceremony at Central Park.
Contestants in the Christmas tree decorating contest learn who won and Santa sticks around until about 9:30 taking photos with attendees until the end of the night, Kramm said.
Then the next night is the annual Sip n’ Stroll, he said.
Sip n’ Stroll allows everyone to gather again downtown, taste homemade hot cocoa and shop with downtown merchants.
“Your ticket to taste the cocoa is the purchase of the 2024 Sip n’ Stroll mug, which features the Palace Theatre,” Kramm said.
Mugs are available at Gift & Gourmet, Keepers Interiors and You're So Crafty.
Sippers and strollers are able to take photos with Santa on Friday night as well as enjoy fun activities and music as they taste the concoctions of about 30 chocolatiers, Kramm said.
Saturday’s events begin with an 8:30 a.m. Jingle Bell 5K starting at Central Park, running down Nolte Street to the Library, over to Starcke Park and back to Central Park, Kramm said.
Then after the run, the youth get to frolic 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the North Pole Stroll. Central Park fills with kids activities like letters to Santa, cookie decorating and more, Kramm said. Vendors will sell goods for the holidays, he said.
It all comes together as a way of bringing holiday joy to the entire community, Kramm said.
“It is really the opportunity for the community to come together and celebrate the holidays,” he said. “It gets everybody into the holiday mood.”
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