A small but hearty crowd soaked up the Christmas spirit in Clarkesville Saturday…literally. They turned out for the Annual Habersham County Christmas Parade despite overcast skies and drizzle. The abbreviated parade – it was over in less than 30 minutes – wound its way down Washington Street to the old county courthouse. There was a handful of floats, lots of candy for the kids, plenty of sirens, and yes, the big man in red himself.
Santa Claus road through town on a miniature fire truck from the North Pole. Children were delighted to see him but 7-year old Jaden Newton of Dahlonega was even more excited to see Batman.
The caped crusader strode through the streets alongside several other comic book and movie hero lookalikes including Superman, Wolverine and Elsa from Frozen. Jaden’s big brother, Keziah, says the parade was “cool.” He says his favorite part was seeing the Avengers. The boys’ great-grandmother, Vicki Maney of Baldwin, says she wasn’t about to let a little rain stop her from enjoying the parade with her family. “I have three great-grandchildren and they love parades. This is the first time we’ve been able to come to Clarkesville to this one. We love it.”
Jenny Humphries is the boys’ grandmother. She came from Hayesville, North Carolina, to enjoy the day with them and her 4-year old granddaughter Indica Conner. “We had thought about not coming but they wanted to come so bad that we decided to come on.” She says she’s glad they did. “They had a good time.”
It was a toss-up in the favorites category for Conner. She told Now Habersham she liked seeing Elsa and getting candy.
Some parade participants pulled out of the line-up last minute because of the weather. Another group just didn’t make it. The Currahee Thunder Equestrian Drill Team from Toccoa experienced two tire blowouts on their way to Saturday’s parade.
Now Habersham met up with the team at Ingles in Clarkesville after the parade.
“One of our truck and trailers had a blowout in Toccoa,” drill team coach Shelby Fricks explains. “They got the tire changed. We got a little bit of a late start then we got almost to Ingles here in Clarkesville and we had another blowout. The spare blew out so we had to pull in here and change it.” Fricks says the team arrived at the parade staging area at 10:05 a.m. but were told it was too late. “So we just decided to come to Starbucks.”
13-year old Kinley Craig says she’s disappointed they didn’t get to ride in the Habersham County Christmas parade but says she understands. “I was like, well darn, but then of course we did have two blowouts and I was like we were going to miss it anyway because there were only like five floats,” Craig says. Besides, she adds, her team was heading to another parade. “We’re going to make the Toccoa parade and there’s going to be a lot of people there.” (Toccoa held it’s Christmas parade Saturday, too).
From tire blowouts to rain, Saturday was not a perfect day for a parade but that didn’t seem to matter to those who rode in it and watched it. They were determined to spread and ‘soak up’ the Christmas spirit and they did.
Merry Christmas, Habersham!
For those of you who missed it here are a few more photos of Saturday’s Annual Habersham County Christmas Parade by Now Habersham photographer Johnny Bailey.
