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Holiday Light competition in Magrath

Posted on December 3, 2020 by admin

By Nikki Jamieson
Westwind Weekly News

While the Hometown Christmas event cannot proceed as usual this year, people in Magrath will still get to enjoy some holiday cheer.

The Magrath Chamber of Commerce, with support from the town, will be holding a Hometown Christmas Light Contest this year.

In previous years, the chamber sponsored our annual traditional Home Town Christmas event with hundreds of people milling about the downtown core, with the town hosting Santa Claus, who would be escorted by the school band, and hold a tree lighting ceremony, with Main Street closed down for the event. The Magrath fire department would host a bonfire and hot chocolate in front of the fire hall, and local businesses would remain open late for the event with churches hosting activities such as gingerbread House building contests, carollers and nativity displays.

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the chamber was not able to do this this year.

“After a great deal of back and forth discussions between Chamber members, the idea to host a Covidfriendly event was settled on. It will be different, but it is something. Since this is the first year for this idea, we have yet to see how it is embraced by the public. We hope to see a lot of neat light displays popping up in the coming week and beyond,” said Roger Davies, secretary for the chamber.

Open to all residents of Magrath and the surrounding areas, entrants are asked to prepare an outdoor light display to the theme of ‘Christmas in my Hometown’for the week of Dec. 3-10 and beyond. They then must submit a photo or video of the completed display to rdavies@magrathchamber.com for posting on the chamber’s contest webpage. Judging will be done by an anonymous panel of third-part, chamber chose judges, with the winners being announced Dec. 17.

First prize is a $150 gift certificate to local chamber businesses, second prize a $100 gift certificate and third prize a $50 gift certificate. Additional runner-up prizes for merit are 10 $20 gift certificates to local chamber businesses, and a special bragging rights award to the Best Business Outdoor Light Display.

The town is currently in negotiations with the North Pole to see if Santa Claus can reschedule his appearance to a future COVID-19 safe activity before Christmas.

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