News Update
Lights and laughs
Minshew Elementary's "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" float takes home first prize for the fifth straight year.
By Danny Gallagher, McKinney Courier-Gazette
This year's Parade of Lights featured a different kind of lights: the bright lights of Tinseltown.
This year's "Christmas in Hollywood" parade organized by the Rotary Club of McKinney and the McKinney Jaycees featured a string of floats featuring classic Christmas films and icons. Minshew Elementary School took home the first place prize for the fifth consecutive year.
Chris Siebenhausen, chairman of the Parade of Lights for the McKinney Rotary Club, said this year's parade also marked a changing of the guard for the annual Christmas tradition. The Rotary Club and the Jaycees partnered up to put on the parade as the Rotary Club plans to take over the parade starting next year.
"The Jaycees are phasing out," Siebenhausen said. "The membership has dropped and were getting lower and were not getting a lot of new members and we thought the Rotary Club had a bigger organization."
Siebenhausen said the Club wanted to make sure the annual Christmas parade would carry on long after the Jaycees faded into existence.
"It's a really good thing that bring people to west McKinney who have never been to downtown," Sienbenhausen said. "It helps the downtown businesses quite a bit. Plus it's fun and the little kids love it."
This year's parade was the biggest yet with more than 60 entries and floats, over 1,000 participants and the McKinney North High School marching band providing a festive soundtrack. More than 4,000 people watched the parade along the route that stretched from the old Collin County parking lot, through the downtown square and down Kentucky Street.
Sienbenhausen said the parade gets bigger every Christmas.
"In fact, I've had a few people email me this weekend who said that now that Minshew got their fifth win this year, we'll have to elevate our game," he said. "We'll just expect something a little more over the top next year."
Minshew's float entry recreated the classic holiday comedy, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," a four trailer long float that includes scenes such as the Griswold family's home drowned in Christmas lights, Uncle Lewis' cigar burning up the living room Christmas tree and Cousin Eddie's beat up Winnebago.
Stephanie Marchal, president of the Minshew Parent Teacher Association, said it took an entire month to finish the float, some of which was done just before the parade started rolling.
"We chose 'Christmas Vacation' because we knew it had mass appeal," Marchal said. "Maybe not a lot of the kids have seen it, but most adults have seen it and it was easier to pull off than 'Elf' would have been."
Marchal said Minshew's PTA takes the time to rally students and parents together during the busy holiday season to make these floats not for the money they might win or the bragging rights they'll have until next Christmas.
"We do it for the community," Marchal said. "We're very proud of our students and school so to put ourselves out there and show them what we can do is a pretty neat and interesting thing. The best part is seeing the grown ups pointing and laughing and saying how much we got it right."
Contact Danny Gallagher at dgallagher@acnpapers.com.
By Danny Gallagher, McKinney Courier-Gazette
This year's Parade of Lights featured a different kind of lights: the bright lights of Tinseltown.
This year's "Christmas in Hollywood" parade organized by the Rotary Club of McKinney and the McKinney Jaycees featured a string of floats featuring classic Christmas films and icons. Minshew Elementary School took home the first place prize for the fifth consecutive year.
Chris Siebenhausen, chairman of the Parade of Lights for the McKinney Rotary Club, said this year's parade also marked a changing of the guard for the annual Christmas tradition. The Rotary Club and the Jaycees partnered up to put on the parade as the Rotary Club plans to take over the parade starting next year.
"The Jaycees are phasing out," Siebenhausen said. "The membership has dropped and were getting lower and were not getting a lot of new members and we thought the Rotary Club had a bigger organization."
Siebenhausen said the Club wanted to make sure the annual Christmas parade would carry on long after the Jaycees faded into existence.
"It's a really good thing that bring people to west McKinney who have never been to downtown," Sienbenhausen said. "It helps the downtown businesses quite a bit. Plus it's fun and the little kids love it."
This year's parade was the biggest yet with more than 60 entries and floats, over 1,000 participants and the McKinney North High School marching band providing a festive soundtrack. More than 4,000 people watched the parade along the route that stretched from the old Collin County parking lot, through the downtown square and down Kentucky Street.
Sienbenhausen said the parade gets bigger every Christmas.
"In fact, I've had a few people email me this weekend who said that now that Minshew got their fifth win this year, we'll have to elevate our game," he said. "We'll just expect something a little more over the top next year."
Minshew's float entry recreated the classic holiday comedy, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," a four trailer long float that includes scenes such as the Griswold family's home drowned in Christmas lights, Uncle Lewis' cigar burning up the living room Christmas tree and Cousin Eddie's beat up Winnebago.
Stephanie Marchal, president of the Minshew Parent Teacher Association, said it took an entire month to finish the float, some of which was done just before the parade started rolling.
"We chose 'Christmas Vacation' because we knew it had mass appeal," Marchal said. "Maybe not a lot of the kids have seen it, but most adults have seen it and it was easier to pull off than 'Elf' would have been."
Marchal said Minshew's PTA takes the time to rally students and parents together during the busy holiday season to make these floats not for the money they might win or the bragging rights they'll have until next Christmas.
"We do it for the community," Marchal said. "We're very proud of our students and school so to put ourselves out there and show them what we can do is a pretty neat and interesting thing. The best part is seeing the grown ups pointing and laughing and saying how much we got it right."
Contact Danny Gallagher at dgallagher@acnpapers.com.
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