Joliet festival adds local tradition to holiday season

The Light Up the Holidays Festival and Parade has become such a Joliet tradition that the Martin family contributed its third trumpet player to the festivities on Friday.

“It’s kind of deja vu,” Wendell Martin remarked as he and wife Sharralyn awaited the start of a parade that would include their daughter, Avalyn, in the Laraway School Band.

“We both were in the Laraway Lancers Band, too,” Martin said.

Not only that, the Joliet couple marched in the parade when they were Laraway students.

“We both played the trumpet, and our daughter plays trumpet, too,” Sharralyn added.

The day-after-Thanksgiving event, in its 24th year and drawing several thousand people to downtown Joliet, has become a blend of something old and something new as the city gets a start on the holiday season.

The Martins’ twin sons were trying out an iceless skating rink, a first at the festival.

So did Evan Gurney, the 10-year-old son of Beth and Tim Gurney. The Gurneys have come to the festival every year since Evan was born, and they liked the iceless skate rink.

“I’m really glad they added that this year,” Beth said. “I like that they keep adding new things.”

The parade that follows the lighting of the city Christmas tree at 5:15 p.m. is the big draw.

Organizers added the iceless skate rink, horse-drawn carriage rides, and a Christmas crafts market this year to bring more people downtown earlier for the daylong event.

It appeared to work, said Priscilla Cordero, executive director for the Joliet City Center Partnership that hosts the festival.

“The only feedback we’ve gotten other than that everybody really enjoyed it is that people said, ‘Next year, you’ve got to do more,’” Cordero said. “And, we will because next year it’s the 25th anniversary.”

Cordero estimated at least 7,500 people were at the event on Friday. It didn’t hurt that the temperature was in the 50s up to parade time.

The North Pole Christmas Market drew a steady stream of traffic since it opened at 10 a.m., said Mary Jaworski, former president of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commere & Industry and a volunteer for the event.

Jaworski considered the market “a resounding success” and said people liked the extra activities at the festival.

“People are just thrilled, I think, to mosey around and have so much to do,” she said.

Walter Dean, co-owner of Popus Gourmet Popcorn in Joliet, said he said he brought 300 bags of popcorn to the market to sell.

“We’ve got just 14 left,” Dean said with an hour left to sell the rest.

Dean said he and other vendors were “upbeat” about the market and would look forward to having it again next year.

Ashley Evans of Minooka enjoyed the horse-drawn carriage ride after getting off with a friend and the five children they brought with them.

“We have five kids ages 3 to 11 with us, and all the activities are entertaining for them,” she said.

It was Evans’ first visit to the Light Up the Holidays Festival and Parade. It was the first for Kathleen Gruber of Chicago, who came to march in the parade with her nephew Tom Beckman and his Boy Scout troop. It was the first for Paulie Lenci of Joliet, who came with his girlfriend’s family and said the festival “makes you feel like Christmas will come early.”

And, it was the first time for Jeanette Alvarado, who had just taken photographs of daughters Alaya and Camila, two of her four children, in a big, red inflatable chair.

The mild weather was one reason they came, said Alvarado, who has lived in Joliet all her life.

“And, I have a lot of kids now,” she said. “I decided to bring them.”