The small town of Helper comes alive during the Christmas season with the Annual Christmas Town Celebration. This year will mark the 33rd year for a pretty amazing holiday attraction that has become a tradition for many families in the Castle Country area.
There will be a Luminary Memorial held at Helper City Cemetery on Nov. 30 at 6:30 pm. This is open to anyone who has lost a loved one and would like to remember them during the holiday season. “This event keeps growing and growing and people are getting more and more interested in it. It just started out as a fundraiser idea from someone that told us about this that they did it in another town and we started it. We were trying to remember; I think it’s been about 15 years that we’ve been doing this ceremony and it’s just beautiful. You know it brings out a lot of emotions and stuff but it’s just a nice community gathering. People are there hugging each other, and talking with each other, its real solemn, yet you get fulfilled from the message of what we’re doing,” said Event Coordinator, Mark Montoya. Guests will be able to purchase a luminary for $7.00 for their loved one during the event, with all proceeds going towards the fireworks display that will be held on Saturday night.
The annual Electric Light Parade takes place on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3 at 7:00 pm on Helper’s Historic Main Street. “If you ever want to come and visit Helper this is the weekend to do it. We have the Christmas Parade as you said, but it starts off earlier at 4:00 pm we have the Chili Dinner at the Helper Civic Auditorium from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Its just another one of our fundraisers, it’s how we raise money to pay for the fireworks, that’s just on the first night on Friday. The same thing happens the next day on Dec. 3rd, but we have something that starts a little earlier at 8:00 am in the morning, we have Breakfast with Santa,” said Montoya. The Breakfast with Santa is a huge pajama party and an opportunity to enjoy a breakfast meal with Santa at the Helper Civic Auditorium on Saturday morning.
There is still plenty of time to enter a float into the parade which is a great way to advertise your business or organization for free. “I tell people don’t worry about the esthetics, what it looks like during the day, all that matters is that it’s covered in lights. People just like seeing that float drive by with tons of lights, you can do that in a day, it doesn’t take that long. It’s fun, you can make it a tradition for your work, family can enter, we have like church groups. So its just a way to create a new Christmas tradition,” explained Montoya. Interested individuals can download from the Helper City website a parade application and see the parade guidelines. Guests should keep in mind that on Saturday following the parade there will be a Christmas Fireworks Show choreographed to music on KRPX 95.3 FM The Peak.
To learn more about Utah’s Christmas Town festivities visit their website at https://www.utahschristmastown.com/