The small town of Helper, Utah comes alive during the Christmas season. A Christmas Festival that expands three weekends in the month of December. This year marks the 27th Annual Utah’s Christmas Town Festival. There has been a lot of new attractions added this year that is sure to get everyone into the Christmas spirit.
The first weekend started with the annual Christmas Craft Fair which was a huge hit and gets bigger every single year. The Lights on Ceremony was held on the evening of Friday, November 25th which sets the entire Christmas Festival in motion.
The annual Luminary Memorial Ceremony will be held on Wednesday, November 30 at the Helper City Cemetery beginning at 6:30 pm. Luminaries may be purchased in advance or on the eve of the service for $7.00 each. If your loved ones are not buried at the Helper City Cemetery that is ok, they still can be memorialized at the ceremony. Event organizers will place all luminaries purchased throughout the cemetery.
Prior to the parade this year a musical number has been added as Mark Montoya, Committee Chair describes, “There is also at the Rio Theatre before the parades starting at 6:00 pm, the Carbon High Choir is presenting a medley of Christmas music for you to enjoy before the parade and it’s call Do You Hear What I Hear.”
Another new event added is Seasons Screenings, Montoya explains “They have a competition out there called Season Screenings, so they have had people submit films, they are going to show those before the light parade, they are three-minute Christmas segments.” This will begin inside the Rio Theatre at 5:30 pm both Friday and Saturday.
The two-day Electric Light Parade will be held on Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3 at 7:00 pm, with Kirk and Jodi Mascaro as Grand Marshals. Registration and line-up begins at 5:30 pm at Locust and Main Street. Drivers will be required to stay with their floats. Montoya explains the new parade route this year, “If you happen to go watch the parade over on 2nd East, up by the ball park – because that’s where the parade route goes, it is not going up there this year because of construction. So, the parade route is going to go up Janet Street, up Stack Street which is around the LDS Church and back down Ridge Way.” On Saturday night, immediately following the parade, the grand finale will be a firework show choreographed to music for everyone to enjoy.
A Chili Dinner will be held prior to the light parade inside the Helper Civic Auditorium on both Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3. Montoya added, “That starts at 4:00 pm, the chili dinner is a great place to go eat, get warm. It supports our festivities, all the money that we raise there goes towards next year’s festivities.” There will be other food on the menu such as Kielbasa, Hot Dogs, Nachos and Sauerkraut.
This year the committee partnered up with the Helper Arts, Music and Film Festival. They will be sponsoring three Christmas films for the entire family to enjoy after the parade on both nights and after breakfast with Santa on Saturday. The films to be shown inside the Rio Theatre will be The Nightmare Before Christmas on Friday, December 2 at 9:00 pm, The Polar Express on Saturday, December 3 at 11:30 am and Saturday night at 9:00 pm will be Scrooged.
The breakfast with Santa event will be held on Saturday, December 3 beginning at 8:00 am till 11:00 am at the Helper Civic Auditorium.
If you would like more details Utah’s Christmas Town activities, visit www.utahchristmastown.com or their Facebook page.