Grafton Winter Lights Parade Draws Huge Crowd
4th Annual Grafton Winter Lights Parade!
GRAFTON - The recent Grafton Winter Lights Parade welcomed hundreds of community members for an evening of holiday cheer in Grafton.
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On Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, the parade route traveled down Water Street and ended at The Loading Dock in Grafton. The parade featured over 100 entrants, from the QEM Fire Protection District to personal trucks decorated with lights.
“Bundle up, bring the family out and enjoy,” said Paula Jameson, who oversees the Enjoy Grafton Facebook page and helped organize the parade.
The evening started with a tribute walk for former Police Chief Eric Spanton, who passed away on Dec. 14, 2024.
Jameson and Dan Ebbing, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, explained that the parade started as a joke between locals. Four years ago, a few people draped their side-by-sides in lights and went on a pub crawl throughout Grafton. But over the years, it has grown into a full-fledged parade, bringing in visitors from across the St. Louis metro area.
The event featured Christmas characters like Santa Claus and the Grinch, and every float threw out “candy or swag,” Jameson said. Ebbing and Jameson encouraged people to go above and beyond with their float decorations.
“We were adamant about that, because if you’re going to ask people to stand in the cold for a parade, especially kids, you want to make it a spectacle, a show, something that entertains them, and you don’t want to see a thousand of the same thing rolling by,” Jameson explained. “So we were adamant, at least I was, about stressing to every entry that the more unique, the more crazy, the more out-of-the-box, the better.”
This year's Best of Show winner was Jessica Leanne Phillips, owner of ZHL Motors, in partnership with Brick's Off Road Park in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
The fourth annual Grafton Winter Lights Parade was another fun tradition for the City of Grafton and surrounding communities. Jameson noted that there are more great events in the works for 2025, and she looks forward to welcoming everyone back to Grafton throughout the year.
“There’s so much more coming. I can’t wait for 2025 for you all to see what’s coming down the pipe for Grafton,” she added. “All it takes is teamwork. That’s all it has taken, just the town uniting and saying, ‘We’re going to do this together, and we all have something to offer and bring to the table here. As long as we shine together, we all shine bright.’”
To learn more about Grafton events, check out Enjoy Grafton on Facebook.
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