Calabash Christmas Parade

Dec 6, 2023

Calabash has had its annual tree lighting for 15 years now and the parade for ____ years. People come to gather and spread holiday cheer. Callahan’s, a gift shop located in Calabash, lets the activities be held there in the parking lot.

Activities are welcome for anyone, but mainly the kids. Activities include making reindeer food, writing letters to Santa, and, best of all, meeting Santa and telling him your wishes for Christmas. Cookies, sandwiches, and more food are offered to the public at no charge. They also give out warm, hot chocolate for everyone to enjoy.

Volunteers help make this possible. People come from different organizations to help set up and run the different activities. They often ask for donations to help needy children who need extra support, especially around the holiday season.

In the Callahans parking lot, volunteers set up a stage for various people to perform on. People dance and sing, and the crowd gets involved by singing along and dancing with the performers. This is also where the music played throughout the night, bringing holiday cheer to everybody.

Local businesses around Calabash create floats to advertise and throw out candy for the kids. The dance team danced in the intersection, and other dance studios walked and danced throughout the parade. Barbie showed up this year as well as Ken, and they were a big hit.

The Christmas tree lighting has been a big hit ever since it started. The tree lighting and the parade have grown in general over the years. This year, there was a large crowd that participated in the activities and showed their holiday spirit.

These special events couldn’t take place without the help of local community members. Without these people, there would be no floats, no one to throw out candy, no help at the stations, no one to set up the stations, no food, and no parade and tree lighting overall.

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Campbell Cheers is a seventeen-year-old senior member of the West Wind staff who really loves the beach. “My favorite part of growing up here is having the freedom to go to the beach whenever I want,” said Cheers. “Another thing I really like about living here is growing up and still having the same friends that I went to elementary and middle school with.” Her hobbies include playing tennis and pickleball with her friends. She doesn’t do it in a competitive spirit though. “We started playing tennis just for fun then that led us into playing pickleball,” said Cheers. “We don't compete or anything like that, it’s just for fun.” Campbell is in her second semester of the West Wind. She took a year-long break in her junior year but returned because she loved journalism. “I joined the class in my sophomore year,” said Cheers. “I didn’t do it my junior year due to a full schedule but I know I wanted to come back my senior year because of how much I loved the community.” Campbell’s plans for the future are to attend UNCW. She strives to earn a bachelor's degree in business. “I know I wanna go to UNCW because my parents went there,” said Cheers. “I also wanna go so I can stay close to home.”