Columbia Mayor Justin McKenzie announced the city’s plans Friday morning at Catchy Friday for the holiday season downtown now that Experience Columbia’s contract has been dissolved.
Speaking at The Church on Main, McKenzie said city leadership aims to deliver more of a hometown, traditional feel to downtown.
“We don’t have the time to do anywhere near what Experience Columbia would do, nor the manpower, but what we’re going to do is decorate, have some lights downtown and we’re going to have a cool tree and music,” he explained. “We’re also going to have events each weekend. We won’t have very much going on during the week, particularly Sunday through Wednesday because we don’t want to take away from church time. What we might have is something special on Thursday nights.”
McKenzie said the plans are not set in stone yet, but they may do something similar to the Night of Worship but have it spread out over a few Thursdays.
The holiday season will begin with the lighting of the Christmas tree and the lights downtown Dec. 1. McKenzie said Santa Claus will arrive that day to light downtown, and they are planning something special that people don’t want to miss.
The MCDP Christmas Parade, which is always scheduled for the first Saturday in December, will be the following day, Dec. 2, at 6 p.m. McKenzie said the plan is to start rolling from RA Johnson Drive at 5:30 p.m. to Broad Street and officially start by Watts Electric near White Street to pick up the bands. The parade will run down Broad Street, turn on Main Street and conclude by Burketts Corner on Mississippi 13 North.
McKenzie said applications will be available soon to register to take part in the parade.
He added there may be something big in the works for the second weekend of the holiday season if they are able to raise enough money, but he didn’t want to ruin the surprise.
“It will be really cool if we can do one of the things we’ve been discussing on the back burner. It’s just going to be costly to do it,” he said. “But it will be unique, and it will be the first time something like it has taken place in Mississippi, if we can pull it off.”
Columbia is also planning to bring back the nativity performances as all parties want to keep it going. McKenzie said there have been discussions about having the shows be different each time so that people can have a different experience each time out.
That thought prevails as the city plans all of the holiday events because everyone has heard countless times, especially from locals, that once they experience downtown once, there hasn’t been much reason to return unless it was to skate. McKenzie said they have taken that to heart, and they want to deliver something different each weekend.
“We’re going to continue to try to keep it as a traditional thing that I want Columbia, Mississippi to be known for, and I think many of you do, too,” he said, addressing the roughly 50 people in attendance. “And we’re going to do everything we can, that at the end of the day, prioritizes our Lord and Savior. Without Him, there would be nothing. Why would we even have Christmas?”
If you have ideas for what you would like to see during the holiday season or would like to participate, McKenzie said the best way is to email Lori Watts or Carolyn Burton of the MCDP at lwatts@mcdp.info or cburton@mcdp.info.
