HOLLY POND, Ala. – Governors Park in Holly Pond is decked out for the holidays with its annual Christmas Cards in the Park display and luminaries dotted along the walkways. The giant Christmas “cards” are decorated by different organizations with festive Christmas themes.
“I don’t have an exact number of the cards that went in, but we’re well ahead of what we were last year, probably in the low- to mid-30s, and we even had to be moved to the other side,” said Holly Pond Mayor Bill Oliver. “The participation was really good, and we have some really good cards out there!”
The Holly Pond High School Band performed at the park Saturday evening before the luminaries were lit.
“I was really happy the band came and performed, and of course Santa has been here to talk with the kids,” said Oliver, who also thanked the Holly Pond Middle School baseball team for setting up the luminaries. “I was really happy this year; people seemed really excited and the band did an extremely good job.”
Oliver shared a brief history of his town’s event.
“I can’t give you an exact number of years ago, but we decided to do the Cards in the Park after seeing them, I think we saw them in Arab, and that kind of put an idea of what we could do, and the first year we had some participation, but over time it’s grown,” he said. “This year, we’ve had a good turnout, I think. There are two groups for the luminaries, the first being ‘in honor of.’ If you have someone you’d just like to give a little special pat on the back or little special recognition of how much they mean to you, that’s that what that group is for, it can be anyone you want to recognize. The other, ‘in memory of,’ is for those who have passed away and you want to give a special moment of honor to. Each one of the bags will be either ‘in memory of’ or ‘in honor of’ depending on whether the person’s name on the bag is deceased or not and then we do the same thing with the military section of the luminaries.”
The Cards in the Park display will be in the park through Dec. 31.
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