Winter is approaching us: from day to day we see it sometimes coming fast and sometimes coming slow. How do we know? Well, we can take a quick glance at our outdoor thermometers or simply look at mountain tops dusted with white, leaves raked into piles and a desire to find our scarves, caps, gloves, boots and heavy jackets. Of course, we can also have a desire to stay inside and walk the dog later when, hopefully, the sun will appear.

Another way to welcome winter is to look at the Old Town Pocatello list of activities and start getting ready for the beautiful and fun events Old Town Executive Director Stephanie Palagi and her crews are organizing. Regardless of what events are planned and carried out, Stephanie presents us with a glimpse of her never diminishing creativity and her successes related to building appreciation for this historic evidence of Old Pocatello.

For now, the beautiful “Rudolph’s a Night so Bright Old Town Pocatello Light Parade” will give us an excellent introduction to the coming of Christmas. This event, a yearly step into seasonal joys will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday. Floats will line up on South First Avenue under the Benton Street Overpass and then go east on Lewis Street, north on Third Avenue, west on Center Street and through the Center Street underpass. Then the parade will go south on Union Pacific Avenue, west on Bonneville Street and north on Main Street before finally ending at Wyeth Street.

Sponsored this year by the ISU Credit Union, the parade entries are made up of businesses, clubs and organizations. Prizes will be given for the floats that best exhibit “best lights,” “non-profit,” “traditional,” “children,” “mayor’s choice” and more. Candies will be tossed but only by walking candy distributors adorned by lights.

Children are asked not to dash into the street to pick up a candy piece. Why? Well, it is dark, there are lots of people and no one wants to see or hear of a child being stepped on or otherwise hurt while trying to gather goodies. As a special gift, there will be more than 2,000 reindeer antlers given out to children under 12 along the parade route.

One of the parade purposes is to exhibit shops situated in the Old Town area. In this way, those who watch the parade will be made aware of the many convenient and varietal opportunities to be found, all of which will be open on Saturday with a wide selection of wonderful items at good prices.

In addition, there will be more candy and other things focused on satisfying customers. Aside from enticing people to shop on Saturday, the parade definitely focuses upon the thrilling aspects of Christmas, our biggest and most beautiful celebration of the year.

Santa will appear, riding on a fire truck and visible to everyone. To know what the other themes will be, you will just have to see each float for yourself. Over time, these themes have ranged from serious to funny to extremely complicated and beyond. The most important point provided by the variety of floats is that creativity can be combined with serious intents, all of which are presented using bright lights, careful planning and the intent to ensure that happiness is important to all.

Christmas is a welcome celebration for all of us. It combines a deeply spiritual understanding with a reminder that joy is a major aspect of living a life experienced with thoughtful, kind and responsible attitudes, respect for the rule of law and our Constitution.

As individuals, we all share a need to maintain the values through which our country was originated and continues to be respected for. Enjoying a parade such as this offers a simple but perfect example of one of the many positive activities we can enjoy and cherish.

Finally, the “A Night so Bright” parade will help all in attendance to get away from the feelings of being so-so-so full of Thanksgiving foods consumed the day before.

Eating yummy foods is good, but getting out into the fresh air is at least as, if not better, than working on the cooking and then the eating of large amounts of turkey, stuffing, and all of the other things that go with a Thanksgiving dinner.

So, go to the parade, enjoy seeing friends and especially enjoy the beautiful floats and seeing Santa Claus on the fire truck.

Kay Merriam of Pocatello has a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. She was the president of the state League of Women Voters for two years and president of the Pocatello chapter for two years as well. She was the president of the Bannock County Planning and Zoning Committee for 11 years and on the Pocatello-Chubbuck District 25 School Board for six years.