Christmas Season in La Grange Kicked Off By Some 700-Plus at Schmeckenfest
In a year where nothing has been normal, Schmeckenfest wasn’t either.
The 13th annual version of La Grange’s downtown Christmas event was smaller and with a lot of safety precautions.
But hundreds still came to downtown La Grange to sample wassail, wave at Santa, and ring in the start of the Christmas season.
“I was very impressed with how it went,” said Stacey Norris, Director of Community Development & Tourism for the City of La Grange. “We had about a third of the normal crowd. In a normal year we have about 2,200. People were social distancing and wearing masks.
“We weren’t able to have the traditional kids’ activities, but kids were running around and playing on the courthouse lawn anyway, which was nice to see. We actually noticed more people shopping in the stores during the event than usual, which was nice.”
The event began with a parade. In a normal year there are several floats, but this year it was led by La Grange police Chief David Gilbreath, followed by the La Grange High School marching band. Then came two La Grange fire trucks, one of which was carrying Santa and Mrs. Clause, who waved to the crowd.
But there were not personal visits with the big guy this year, or posed pictures, because of the pandemic.
After the short parade, the focus shifted to the courthouse lawn where Mayor Pro-Tem Honza Cernosek gave a speech before officially lighting the county Christmas tree.
“This year has changed the way we celebrate Christmas, but not the reason why we celebrate Christmas,” Cernosek said.
After that people descended on the 20 or so wassail booths spread out around the square.
The La Grange High School German Club was voted best Unleaded Wassail, while La Grange Ford won best Leaded Wassail. Voting this year was done via cell phone to further limit contact.
“Someone sent us a message and said it was nice to see a group of people laughing, and it struck me that that’s not happened much this year,” Norris said. “We actually had a number of people thank us for having the event.