The Lights Fantastic Parade

It was cold last night. Very cold. But who says you have to sit at home, warm and comfortable, when you can have a little fun outside, even though its cold and freezing?

Hundreds of adults and children lined the streets of downtown Carbondale to watch the traditional Lights Fantastic Parade - a yearly event that signals the start of the Christmas season here.

With Illinois Avenue closed off to traffic, finding parking was a headache. But well worth the effort.

All wrapped up in layers of warm winter clothing, Nanu and I stoood for about an hour or two, watching the colorful and creative floats, marching bands and other holiday-themed lighted entries as they rolled one after the other.

There were floats in the shape of alien spaceships, stable scenes from Christ's birth, a lounge scene in a bar(!), floats in the shape of the world talking about global unity, a series of mini-cars which did coordinated stunts together, a series of guys on bikes doing wheelies, and just so much more.

Then came a group of people under a huge dragon with glowing, blinking eyes, while their friends carried "dead witches" on long poles. It looked pretty cool, except a kid who stood next to me, shouted out, "Hey, it's not Halloween!"

The marching bands representing various area schools were pretty impressive. Kids with musical instruments playing anything from Jingle Bells to Staying Alive, while whole other groups danced in coordination and pom-pommed to the tunes.

What struck me was the predominance of body lights every parade participant seemed to have stuck on their caps and bodies.