Morrison celebrates Christmas season with songs and a parade

MORRISON – The Morrison community embraced the spirit of giving during the annual Christmas Walk and parade Saturday, Dec. 7.

This year’s theme was a holiday luau, so Hawaiian shirts and Christmas hats were the dress of the day.

Festive events began early with carriage rides and visits with Santa starting at 3 p.m. Christmas carolers sang in the streets as Madrigals prepared for their upcoming concert.

Members of Morrison Brethren in Christ Church provided cups of soup while local businesses, such as The Bread Lady, poured cocoa and apple cider.

At Crossroads Church, Morrison Music Theatre Association presented the final showing for its production of “A Christmas Carol,” a radio-show production featuring a cast of all ages.

At 5 p.m., the town gathered for the ceremonial lighting of the Christmas tree. The mayor thanked members of the Morrison Chamber of Commerce for giving their time to make the event possible, Community State Bank for the use of the property and Morrison Garden Club representatives who provided the tree for the year.

Eric Phend of the Morrison Music Theatre Association led the caroling. As part of the holiday luau theme, he taught the song “Mele Kalikimaka” to children.

“I do this every year for the kids,” Phend said. “It’s the highlight of the night for me. It’s also been my job to come up with songs to match the themes for each year. When I first started leading the caroling, we didn’t get a big crowd at all. About 10. Tonight, we had quite the crowd. Creating a bunch of relationships is the idea.”

The celebration drew to a close with the Christmas parade. Excavators and tractors decked in festive lighting drove past the packed streets proving that in Morrison the spirit of the holidays is alive and well.