On Friday, December 2, the city of Nashville literally ushers in the holiday with the annual lighting of Music City's Christmas tree, followed by the 59th Annual Nashville Christmas Parade with Vince Gill leading the way as this year's Grand Marshal.
Before Gill heads towards the parade route, he and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean will venture to Public Square Plaza, located downtown in front of the Nashville/Davidson Country Courthouse to light the city's official Christmas Tree, a 40ft Norwegian Spruce. Joining Gill and Mayor Dean at the tree lighting ceremony will be Tennessee Titans QB Matt Hasselbeck and his wife, Sarah.
While Gill, who recently performed a duet with Miss Piggy at the CMA Country Christmas Special isn't expected to sing Friday night, look for his daughter, Jenny Gill to take to the stage as she is set to perform the holiday classic, Let There Be Peace on Earth.
Also performing at the tree lighting celebration will be up-and-coming country singer, Sarah Darling. Currently signed to Black River Entertainment, Sarah released her sophomore album, Angels & Devils earlier this year. Just last month, Sarah released her first-ever holiday-themed single, Oh Holy Night, which she will perform during Friday's tree lighting. An accompanying music video for Sarah's Oh Holy Night was recently shot at Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center and should be available to watch on the singer's website soon. CLICK HERE to visit Sarah's website.
As the tree lighting celebration draws to a close, Vince and the rest will head toward LP Field to join the parade rout as the 59th Annual Nashville Christmas Parade is set to kick off at 7pm.
This year's theme is Christmas Around The World. In addition to Grand Marshal Vince Gill, this year's parade will include more than 80 participants, including 16 marching bands and nearly 25 floats depicting this year's global theme. Each year, the Nashville Christmas Parade gets more and more impressive. This year's event will also boast several large-scale balloons, just like those featured in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.
The parade route will begin at LP Field and will travel across the Woodland Street Bridge to continue south on 2nd avenue. From 2nd avenue, the parade will take over downtown Nashville as it heads west on Broadway towards the end point at 7th Avenue.
A word to the wise, if you are planning on venturing toward downtown for Friday night's festivities, or if you're channeling Scrooge and want to avoid traffic and street closures, be advised of the following. Beginning at 4pm until 9pm, the Woodland Street Bridge will be closed, as will Union Street (between 1st and 3rd), 2nd Avenue (from Union to Broadway) and Broadway itself between 2nd Avenue and 9th Avenue.
Can't make it downtown, but want to see the parade? Metro Nashville's local cable channel, Metro 3 (located on Channel 3 on Comcast) will broadcast the parade in it's entirety Friday night, December 2 beginning at 10:30pm, with an immediate rebroadcast following at 11:15pm. Metro 3 is schedule to also repeat their coverage of the Nashville Christmas Parade on Sunday afternoon, December 4.
Be sure and sign up for email reminders when I've posted my next December to Remember article, by clicking the "Subscribe to get instant updates" link located just below the headline in the above article. Check out ALL of my National Columns, as well as my Nashville-based Celebrity News Column via the links below:
CLICK HERE for my National Turner Classic Movies Column
CLICK HERE for my National Daytime TV Column
CLICK HERE for my National Pretty Little Liars Column
Comments