Friday, March 29, 2024
39.0°F

It's that time again!

| November 26, 2010 8:00 PM

It's getting dark at 4 p.m. this time of year, but you can expect the equivalent of a retina-straining midsummer sun this evening around 6.

Mix in an assault on your eardrums and, wow!, we'll get North Idaho's holiday season off to its traditional smashing start.

After the Christmas parade winds westward along Sherman Avenue at 5 p.m., some 30,000 seasonal celebrants will huddle around The Coeur d'Alene Resort. They'll light candles, sip hot chocolate and sing Christmas carols. When the clock tower strikes 6 - give or take a minute or two - a sensational fireworks display will erupt over Lake Coeur d'Alene. It's expected to last a little over six minutes, which means that packing 2,300 shells into that time, witnesses will experience an average of six explosions per second.

As the last bursts fade over the black water, attention will turn to The Resort lawn, where those many thousands of voices will count down from 10 in the dark. With the flip of a switch, more than 1.5 million lights attached to 250 different displays will burst into life, and they'll be with us every night through Jan. 2.

There are a lot of reasons the greater Coeur d'Alene area is such a fantastic place to live, and this unique launch of the holiday season is one of them. The parade comes compliments of the Downtown Association, which has strung up some 50,000 bulbs of its own along Lakeside and Sherman. The fireworks and lighting ceremony are an annual treat from Duane and Lola Hagadone and The Hagadone Corp. to the community.

We can think of no better way to spend a couple hours the evening after Thanksgiving, huddled with family and friends, so cold on the outside and so warm on the inside.