CLEARWATER - Holiday events in downtown Clearwater are scheduled as usual in spite of construction on the Cleveland Street Streetscape. The city's annual Tree Lighting Ceremony will set downtown lights aglow from City Hall to the Streetscape construction zone, and the Holiday Parade won't miss a beat.
The Friday, Dec. 1, Tree Lighting Ceremony, begins with entertainment from the Clearwater High School Tornado Marching Band in the City Hall parking lot, 112 S. Osceola Ave., at 5:30 p.m. City officials will assist Santa and Mrs. Claus as they flip the switch on City Hall's giant Yule tree at 6 p.m. Following the ceremony, the Peace Praise band will provide a musical escort as attendees cross the street to Roebling Hall at Peace Memorial Presbyterian Church. The event will wrap up there with a program of choral music from Skycrest Elementary School students and a screening of a children's holiday classic film. Refreshments will be served, compliments of the Downtown Development Board.
The annual Holiday Parade will kick off at Crest Lake Park, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 8. More than 100 units in this year's parade will proceed down Cleveland Street and turn on Myrtle Avenue, the end of the route this year. The parade will be taped and re-broadcast on C-VIEW 15, Clearwater's government access TV station, throughout the month of December
Both events are free and open to the public.