Kelseyville’s 19th Annual Christmas in the Country, Merchant Open House & Parade of Lights was a magical evening to kick off the holiday season.

Main Street bustled with rosy cheeked children, happy faces, visitors from all over, holiday music and twinkling lights that seemed to delight all.

I want to thank The Kelseyville Business Association for sponsoring this very special event.

We had over 60 entries in the parade and we want to thank Mike Linnell for being the parade organizer. Mike always does a great job of contacting participants and lining up the festive entries including floats, animals, motorcycles, Model As and the bubble machine that delighted close to 1,000 holiday visitors.

We want to thank all the parade participants. Without all of your hard work and creativity we wouldn’t have the biggest and best light parade in Lake County.

This year the Main Street merchants welcomed all in grand fashion. Holiday treats, warm beverages and their shops decorated for the season. It is an old-fashioned Christmas for all to enjoy without pulling out their wallet. Their generosity showed the true spirit of the holiday.

Main Street’s decorations didn’t just happen. With the help of Eric Schofield, Lucas Kepler, Dave Morse, Trena and Armand Pauly, Bob and Jeanette Bartley, Brian Fischer, Jon Ballesteros, Nick Batitta, Sara Delk and Ron Chips all donated their time and energy to make our town sparkle.

The big ornaments on the light poles are put up every year by Jim Merriman and the Kelseyville Lions Club and Bill Dawson.

We also want to thank Ruth Stewart, owner of Kelseyville Pharmacy for sponsoring the new dripping icicle lights. Kelseyville Pear Festival also bought 11 new lighted wreaths for our lamp posts. A big thanks to all of you.

We appreciate the time that the California Highway Patrol senior volunteers, Ed McDonald, Al Reynolds and John Wikirchen for donating their time by closing Main Street. Thanks to Larry Caravario and the CHP Explorers for all of their time and energy.

Our candy cane  barricades, built by Ernie Ostern, are placed down both sides of Main Street to keep the holiday visitors safe. Ernie works tirelessly to keep them in good condition and helps us set them up and take them back down. All of the above elves worked so hard to make Christmas in the Country the wonderful family event that it has become.

The local churches participated with St. Peters Catholic Church offering free goodies and food, Kelseyville Presbyterian Church held its annual chili or chowder dinner and Kelseyville United Methodist Church and Unitarian Universalist Community, had their free holiday treats, their canned food drive and caroling.

Westamerica Bank hosted Santa again this year and Dawn Smith of ColorSplash Photo took pictures and donated all the proceeds to Lake County Foster Children. Thank you, Dawn.

Carolyn Morris had her artwork on display for all to enjoy and Dave Neft entertained the crowds. Kelseyville Fire Department did a great job of decorating the firehouse and their truck that Santa road on top of at the parade. Our towns young live Christmas tree was darling too, good job!

Special thanks to Rob Brown and so many others that made the event so special. Thanks to the generosity of Kelseyville Pizza, Johns Market, Umpqua Bank, Studebakers Coffee House, Lyle at Kelseyville’s Road Department and Lake County Waste Solutions.
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Last but not least we want to thank all the people that came out and made the evening so much fun. Your happy faces and enthusiasm is why we love to welcome everyone back each year.

Next year will be our 20th Christmas in the Country and we look forward to that celebration.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

Mary E. Morse is event coordinator for Christmas in the Country in Kelseyville, Calif.