Christmas at Palace includes Santa, tree-lighting

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The Parade of Lights may have been canceled, but Christmas was not — and neither were holiday-themed events in Mitchell.

This year, the volunteer committee which used to organize the Parade of Lights is introducing a new event, Christmas at the Palace, which will debut Monday night.

“It’s a change from the Parade of Lights. It’s a new community event,” said Molly Goldsmith, a committee member. “We wanted to keep certain elements of what we were doing before.”

She said the event after the Parade of Lights at the Corn Palace was always well attended, which helped to prompt a slew of activities slated for the Palace.

The evening’s festivities will start at 4:30 p.m., with a visit from Santa Claus. Ol’ St. Nick will be available until 7 p.m. for children to see and give their holiday wish lists.

“That was one of the main things we really like about it, is kids will be able to see Santa pretty much right after school,” Goldsmith said.

Free chili will be served from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Cider and cookies also will be served compliments of NorthWestern Energy and Mitchell Main Street & Beyond.

Starting at approximately 5:10 p.m., entertainment will begin. The Mitchell High School show choir, the MHS drumline and Xtreme Cheerleading will perform, and members of the “White Christmas” Mitchell Area Community Theatre cast and the fifth-grade class from L.B. Williams Elementary will sing.

Mayor Ken Tracy will say a few words, and then the evening will conclude as the community joins together for a tree-lighting ceremony across the street from the Corn Palace at 7 p.m.

The tree location has been shifted from its previous spot on Main Street.

“A lot of communities have a community tree-lighting ceremony, so we thought it would be a really nice way to … make it truly a community event,” Goldsmith said.

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