Holiday Fun Continues with Candy Cane Lane and Santa Calling
31st Annual Winter Festival Nighttime Holiday Parade Winners Announced
December 05, 2017
The 31st annual Winter Festival – a Celebration of Lights, Music and Arts event took place this past Saturday night, dazzling a crowd of over 150,000 spectators. While the celebration has come and gone, the holiday fun continues. This year, the Candy Cane Lane exhibit in McCarty Park will be open nightly from 6-9 p.m. through Sunday, Dec. 10, weather permitting. It’s free, so bring the whole family to see all the fun, festive displays in downtown Tallahassee.
While out and about enjoying Candy Cane Lane and other holiday activities, be sure to use #TLHolidays when posting updates to your social media accounts. You can follow
holiday happenings throughout December, including the annual Elf Night and Holiday Stroll in Cascades Park events, by liking the City of Tallahassee at Facebook.com/COTNews and following @COTNews on Twitter and Instagram.
Santa Calling
If that isn’t enough to keep the merriment going, sign up for Santa Calling. The City of Tallahassee has made special arrangements for Santa to telephone your little elf from Santa’s Workshop in the North Pole. Santa and his long-distance operators will be calling children 3 to 7 years old on Tuesday, Dec. 12, from 6-8:30 p.m.
If you would like Santa to call your child, please download and complete the form found on Talgov.com/Parks. Completed forms may be mailed in to Santa Calling, c/o TPRNA, 912 Myers Park Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32301. All forms must be received at the main PRNA office by Friday, Dec. 8, at 5 p.m. For more information, please call 891-3816.
31st Annual Winter Festival Nighttime Holiday Parade Winners
With over 65 entries in this year’s Winter Festival Nighttime Holiday Parade, the Judges Panel, made up of local business owners and community leaders, had a difficult job judging this year’s festively fierce competition. Below is a list of their “Best of” parade winners in various categories.
Nighttime Holiday Parade (sponsored by City of Tallahassee Utilities)
- BEST IN PARADE – Springtime Tallahassee American Territorial
- HONORABLE MENTION – Springtime Tallahassee
- BANDS – Deerlake Middle School
- CITY SERVICES – StarMetro
- CLUBS/MISCELLANEOUS – Tallahassee ParrotHead Club
- CORPORATE FLOAT – Creative Pre-School
- CORPORATE VEHICLE – Tallahassee Segway Tours
- EQUESTRIAN – Leon County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Posse
- GOVERNMENT AGENCY – Leon County Board of Commissioners
- NON-PROFIT FLOAT – Springtime Tallahassee Antebellum Statehood
- NON-PROFIT VEHICLE – Alert Today Florida/Florida Department of Transportation
- PERFORMING UNIT – Montford Middle School
- RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION – Rockstar Ravens Community Cheer Squad
- SCHOOLS – Leon County Schools Transportation
In addition to the parade winners, several other competitions took place as part of the Winter Festival – a Celebration of Lights, Music and Arts. Winners are listed below.
Jingle Bell Run (sponsored by Capital Health Plan) winners:
- Joey Castagnaro (male); 9:13
- Racheal Stockel (female); 11:04
Winter Festival Youth Fine Art Competition:
- Middle School 1st place – Hannah Marsh, Raa Middle School
- Middle School 2nd place – Brinkley Snow, Maclay Middle School
- Middle School 3rd place – Grace Kerwin, Montford Middle School
- Middle School Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order by last name) – Mason Kiser, Raa Middle School; Anya Mazerac, Maclay Middle School; Damian Nixon, Trinity Catholic School
- High School 1st place – Gabriella Morales, SAIL High School
- High School 2nd place – Monica Garcia, Leon High School
- High School 3rd place – Anna Shuey, Chiles High School
- High School Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order by last name) – Coral Anderson, SAIL High School; Mikayla Drose, North Florida Christian School; Halee Gill, Success Academy at the Ghazvini Learning Center
- Mayor’s Award – Ayanna Lee, Rickards High School
Photofest 2017:
- Roger Raepple (1st place)
- Lisa Stewart (2nd place)
- Walter Thorner (3rd place)
- Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order by last name) – Riko Carrion, James Daniels and Janetra Washington
Sponsored by the City of Tallahassee and coordinated by the City’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs Department, the 31st annual
Winter Festival – a Celebration of Lights, Music and Arts continued its tradition of welcoming the winter holiday season to the Capital City. For more information on the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs Department, please visit
Talgov.com/Parks, like the department on
Facebook or follow
@COTparks on Twitter.
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