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Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum Signals the Season / Ogden rings in holiday with electric light parade
By CARLOS MAYORGAOGDEN -- Thousands of people lined the streets of downtown Ogden on Saturday as the city kicked off its holiday festivities with its annual Holiday Electric Light Parade and Christmas Village.
Parade organizers estimate about 20,000 people turned out for the event. With roughly 100 volunteers and about 50 floats, this is one of the largest Christmas celebrations Ogden has ever seen, said Carolyn Brierley, special event coordinator for the city.
Crowds were so thick along Washington Boulevard, many parents had to place their children up on their shoulders so they could see the passing floats.
Jesse Malan, of Layton, did just that with his 3-year-old daughter Havannah.
"As we got out of the car, she began screaming at the top of her lungs, saying 'I want to talk to Santa,' '' he said. Malan and his wife brought their two daughters to the parade for the second year in a row.
"We're making it a family tradition," he said.
Brierley said more participants were in the parade than in previous years, making it all the more difficult to judge the entries.
The marching band from Mountain Crest High School won in the best precision marching group category, while Fremont High School Marching Band won in the musical category. Floats from the Salvation Army and St. Mary's Catholic Church Youth Group also won, as did the Imagine Ballet Theater and the float from the Ogden Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Ogden Stake is celebrating its 100-year anniversary and created a float that depicts a scene of horses and a trolley passing by Lester Park, a scene reminiscent of Ogden in 1908.
The float was created with plenty of paint, glitter, lights and "hours and hours and many hours" of work from about 20 members of the stake, said Jan Lawrence of Ogden, a stake member.
As floats headed down Washington Boulevard toward Christmas Village at the Municipal Gardens, parade emcee Dustin Chapman was not only having a great time announcing each float to onlookers, but he was following in his grandfather's footsteps for the third straight year.
Chapman's grandfather, longtime Ogden resident Len Allen, was the annual emcee on the corner of 25th Street and Washington Boulevard for several decades until his death a few years ago. Allen worked locally for KLO radio for 50 years.
Chapman stepped in just months following Allen's death. Being a volunteer in the event is a way to honor his grandfather, he said.
"We always liked to come down as a family and watch grandpa," Chapman said. "It's a family tradition, and my grandpa's tradition for serving Ogden city."
Following the parade, thousands proceeded to Christmas Village for the annual lighting ceremony. This year, 6-year-old Nikell Woodland of Pleasant View, who is recovering from leukemia, flipped the switch to turn on the thousands of lights placed throughout the village.
The crowd counted down from 10 before Woodland turned on the lights. Fireworks followed the lighting.
Ogden's Christmas Village was founded in 1962. This year, for the first time, a "Santa's store" sells gloves and hats, in case people forget to bring them, said the village's honorary mayor Craig Bielik, whose job is to help promote the village.
Chapman said the holiday festivities are some of the best in the state.
"This is Ogden's event," he said. "A lot of people come up, and I just love to see people downtown. Salt Lake has its own tradition, but this is Ogden's time to shine at Christmastime."
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Mountian crest Mustang Marching Band was awesome. They were the best
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