Parade highlights FrostFest

By The Hays Daily News

It started as a lighted parade in downtown Hays back in 2001.

And the event still brings people downtown.

But FrostFest, now in its ninth year, is so much more than a parade.

The event, which takes place annually on the first weekend of December, includes children's activities at the Hays Public Library.

Children can write their letters to Santa and mail them in a special mailbox at the library and await a reply from the North Pole. Letters will be accepted through Dec. 18

The library also hosts a make-and-take Christmas craft and breakfast with Santa, cookie decorating with Santa's elves and a gingerbread house workshop.

Ellis County 4-H'ers and scouts will decorate the trees north of the library Saturday morning.

Nighttime activities include open houses today and Saturday at both the Ellis County Historical Society, 100 W. Seventh, and Historic Fort Hays, 1472 U.S. Highway 183 Alternate.

Several downtown businesses will be open from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, and shoppers can get their last-minute tickets for the Downtown Dollars drawing.

Several thousand dollars, as well as airplane tickets, will be given away at 5 p.m. in the Union Pacific Park at 10th and Main.

Then comes the parade.

Lighted entries will cruise down Main Street decorated in the theme of "Jingle Bell Jamboree."

The parade begins at 5:30 p.m.