Leading up to the annual Twilight Christmas Parade in Atmore, people I met kept telling me to get ready for a spectacle.

They weren’t lying.

Last Saturday night, quite a big crowd lined Main Street for the celebration that featured some 70 individual units, ranging from church groups, civic clubs and high school bands.

Even the Christmas Wizard made an appearance as Fritz Currie who played him, blasted his cannon off at every intersection in town.

I wasn’t the only one plugging their ears from the blast.

As the parade drew nearer, a lot of people asked me where I would be standing. I told them my plan was to walk up and down, take pictures of the crowd and get a few shots of the floats.

Well, that didn’t really happen and I was glad for it.

I decided to stand just across from the Strand Theatre and down from the Atmore Advance’s office.

There were people all around me, clamoring for the thrown candy that hit the pavement hard.

With every picture I took, I was amazed at the creativity some of the groups brought to their floats.

In my mind, there was a tie between two floats that were decorated the best in Jus Because and the Lions Club. In fact, the Lions Club was the overall winner and Jus Because won the people’s choice award.

Standing around 15-feet tall, a big red bag stood over the street with the Grinch just below throwing out candy on Jus Because’s float.

Palm trees and a spewing volcano centered around the parade’s theme, songs of Christmas, on the Lions Club float.

During the parade, I couldn’t help but think about the hard work that went into the crafting of the floats.

It was impressive and the various groups and organizations should be commended for their efforts.

When I was walking back to the office when the parade concluded, I couldn’t help but smile because I just experienced my first Christmas parade in Atmore.

“The city does it big here,” I thought.

Yeah, it was a big event and one that was done right.