While Magical Night will be a drive-through event for the second time, Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group director Joe Jennison noted there will be a few additional groups taking part in the event this year.
One of those additional groups that will be performing during this drive through event will be members of the Mount Vernon High School Band. Jennison said they will provide Christmas music along the route near the old fire station.
Additional new displays this year will also include living pictures honoring the movie “Frozen” and a giant Christmas card with holiday greetings from the local Girl Scouts.
Jennison reiterated that this year, the committee would like vehicles participating in the drive-through event to utilize Third Street by Ace Hardware and proceed toward First Street S.E. along that route. Cars will join the line-up for Magical Night at the intersection across from Lisbon Road, and the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department will be helping to provide traffic control to help keep the motorcade for the event moving smoothly.
“The Magical Night committee made the decision to continue as a drive-through event this year due to safety concerns,” said Joe Jennison, director of Main Street and Marketing for the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group (CDG). “Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, crowds became very large in some of our small venues. The event will not include indoor activities this year due to these safety concerns, and parking will not be allowed along the First Street route.”
Streets will be lined with luminaries as in previous years, as well as window decorations and the community’s growing list of animatronics set up in the storefront windows of individual businesses.
Merchants will decorate their windows for the event, and along the way there will be several “tableaux vivants,” or living pictures with live performers, who will recreate scenes such as the live nativity, Whoville and the Grinch, the Nutcracker and other holiday favorites.
Children are encouraged to write a letter to Santa and deliver it to Santa and Mrs. Claus directly from the window of the family car into a special mailbox created especially for the event. If the letter includes the child’s name and address, Santa has agreed to answer every letter he receives that has a return address.
The live cookie decorating workshop that has long been a Magical Night fixture at the First Street Community Center will change to a take-and-make stop with representatives from the Mount Vernon Parks & Rec department handing out kits on the street for families to take home and make the same cookies in their own kitchens.
The Annual Magical Night Craft Show will be back later in that week with hours set for Thursday, Dec. 2, from 5 to 8 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 3, from 1 to 7 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 4, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Mount Vernon City Hall, 213 First Street NW.
“Magical Night is one of our most anticipated events of any year,” said Jennison. “With lights and live animals and Santa Claus himself, this is the night that Mount Vernon celebrates the holiday season. Our local retail community will plan activities and sales beginning Thursday, Dec. 2. We are asking shoppers to return any time throughout the month of December to shop. But on Wednesday, Dec. 1, please drive through and enjoy Mount Vernon from the safety of your own car.”
Magical Night will be drive-through event Dec. 1
November 25, 2021
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.