BY Rebeccah Waff Cope
As the old proverb goes: “Many hands make for light work.” This is true for so many aspects of our everyday lives but especially in the case of community-wide efforts. Volunteers, elected officials, town staff, non-governmental organizations and local businesses come together to solve issues and address needs, and together make sure we do the best we can for our townsfolk while providing a high quality of life to both residents and visitors to the area.
Decorating for the winter holidays is no exception to this. It takes a coordinated and diverse group effort to transform the town into a winter wonderland with sparkling lights and festive ornaments, and to acquire the town tree from the State Farmers’ Market, get it on display and string up its lights in preparation for the annual tree-lighting event. There are other events to organize too, like the Happy Holly Days Parade. Even Santa gets involved by providing a holiday-time “charmed” mailbox where kids can send him letters, which they do—thousands of them each year.
Efforts to get the town ready for the winter holidays begin many months in advance. The Town of Holly Springs allocates funds in its annual operating budget to support the decorating efforts and holiday events. Every department of the Town gets involved, especially for the parade (which is attended by more than 5,000 people), from the police, firefighters, and finance office to the public works staff, and parks and recreation team.
Public works staff are responsible for adding holiday wreaths, lights and ornaments to the town’s light poles, trees and public buildings (which go up after the Veteran’s Day flags are taken down), while the parks and recreation department acquires the town tree and adds its many lights (several thousand, in fact). Rachel Porter, the Town’s marketing and special events coordinator, mentioned that Adam Huffman, the parks and recreation assistant director, “loves Christmas lights” and that “you can likely see his own house from space” because of all of the lights he adds to it as holiday decorations.
Community sponsors help to provide funding and other needed resources for the holiday festivities as well. For example, this year’s HollyFest event has 18 community sponsors and the Kiwanis of Holly Springs partners with the Town to provide between 20-30 volunteers to ensure the Happy Holly Days parade runs smoothly. Long-time town employee Debbie Mann recalls that 30 years ago when the Town didn’t have funds for decorations, residents decided to step in to help. When they paid their utility bills, they would pop their change into a pickle jar on her desk and that money went towards the Town’s first purchase of holiday decor.
Santa’s mailbox (a gift to children from John Dalpe and ASI, Inc.) will be set out in front of Town Hall at 128 S. Main Street on the afternoon of November 22. Children can drop off letters anytime until Sunday, December 12. Holly Springs Run Club volunteers run the letters to the North Pole so that Santa can answer them before Christmas. Note that children who want to hear back from Santa should include their name and home address in their letter.
Street decorations will be up by Thursday, December 1 when the tree-lighting event will take place outside of the Holly Springs Cultural Arts Center. Town staff are planning for there to be a variety of holiday activities, music and shop displays that evening as well, from 5-8 p.m.
This year, the Happy Holly Days Parade will take place on Saturday, December 10, starting at 10 a.m. Floats, bands, dancers, decorated vehicles, marching groups and all sorts of entertaining entries travel Main Street through downtown. The parade starts at Holly Springs Road and ends at Rogers Street, although the route may get extended to spread out the attending crowd.
Details on these town events can be found at:
https://www.hollyspringsnc.gov/343/Festivals-Events.
There are lots of ways for our community to get into the holiday spirit and so many people are working hard to ensure that the winter season is indeed merry and bright! Many thanks to them and to everyone who gets involved and helps to bring these fun activities to town. We wish you goodwill and lots of happiness to last the whole year long.
