Wilmette’s holiday season is just around the corner, and a spokeswoman for the 2017 Holiday Parade said this year’s event will be particularly tuneful.
“We’ve got the Loyola (Academy) marching band, which we think will be a highlight for everybody,” said Julie Yusim, executive director of the Wilmette-Kenilworth Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the parade every year.
The parade takes place Nov. 18, starting in Linden Square at 10:30 a.m., Yusim said. Participants will travel from the CTA parking lot on 4th Street, go north to Central Avenue, then head west on Central into the village center. The parade ends at Village Hall, 1200 Wilmette Ave., according to the Chamber’s website.
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The night before before the parade kicks off, Wilmette will officially welcome the holidays when Village President Bob Bielinski throws the switch and lights up the village’s holiday tree, Yusim said. The ceremony takes place at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 in front of Village Hall, Yusim said.
A choir from Baker Demonstration School will join Bielinski for the half hour ceremony, she said.
The parade annually features dozens of community groups as well as entries from village businesses, organizations and local governments, she said.
Last year drew roughly 70 entries from groups including the Wilmette Park District, area Cub Scout and Girl Scout groups, as well as contingents from Wilmette churches, schools, and businesses, Yusim said. She said the Chamber is still getting applications for this year’s parade.
Festivities will culminate with an appearance by Santa, and Yusim said families who bring their cameras can take pictures with him, weather permitting, for at least a half hour between noon and 12:30 p.m.
Yusim said the parade will feature some of its perennially popular attractions: “We’ll have clowns, a stilt walker, mini-cars, a lot of fun things for kids and families.”
People who can’t make it to the parade or who want to relive the fun can do so each year, because it is recorded and broadcast throughout December on Wilmette’s Cable Channel 6, Yusim said.
Matt Lambrecht, whose family owns Lambrecht’s Jewelers in downtown Wilmette, is the longtime voice of the holiday parade, providing commentary for the televised version.
“It’s become such a great tradition and I think I’ve done this since the beginning (of the parade),” Lambrecht said. “It’s for the kids, it’s for the families, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy