It has been 75 years the little town of
WaKeeney, Christmas City of the High Plains
has been doing a tree lighting in
the center of town.
Two guys (and a bunch of volunteers)
made a thousand decorations to hang
all around the town square and
surrounding blocks.
They are still being used today.
(Our friend, Dave, said he has been to
EVERY ONE. Including the one where
he was the ONLY spectator and the police
chief just pulled up, flipped the switch and
hopped back in his car. It was a BLIZZARD.)
There were lots of folks there to watch
Santa and Mrs. Claus light the tree!
(Even though it was C O L D !!)
I felt, and looked like, Nanook of the North!
(Or a transplanted Floridian...)
Lots of the vendors along main street
open their doors for crafts and free hot chocolate.
Lots of takers for both of those!
They pipe in Christmas music for the event
on giant speakers and then they use
the town PA system to pipe music all season.
Santa showed up in a SUPER COOL
vintage WaKeeney Chief of Police car.
The current Chief was his driver and escort.
As the town counted down, they lit each set of
blue "sky" lights leading to the tree
and then the tree itself...
It was fun!
Santa's reindeer were there.
The crowd dwindled pretty quickly.
Santa moved to our little "North Pole" on Main
so he could greet the kids, so most went there,
and lots (like us) strolled down the street to visit
the various shops.
(They were having a town-wide 15% off sale!)
We didn't go inside any of the stores.
They were crowded.
And we were hungry.
So we hopped in our car and drove a couple
blocks to Subway for a sandwich.
It was a fun evening!
And this morning.......
