Saturday, November 16, 2013

A Tradition of Thanks in Downtown Petoskey

Thanksgiving comes one month before Christmas. This gives us the opportunity and a little reminder to practice giving thanks before the season of getting stuff begins. It also usually comes a little while before Chanukah for the same reason. Of course, this year Chanukah comes a bit early and starts on Thanksgiving so we might want to start practicing giving thanks a little sooner – like today.

I am thankful for all the traditions of Thanksgiving. I grew up in metro Detroit so Thanksgiving tradition meant the big Hudsons Thanksgiving Day Parade (a frozen treat I later got to share with my kids), going to the Lions game with Dad and having lots of turkey and cranberry sauce with my family. 
 
I have been blessed to live in Petoskey for quite a while now and I look forward to a new set of traditions. There is still a wonderful family dinner. (Vivi makes the cranberry sauce.) I spend some time thinking about my mom and dad and I still get to go to a fantastic holiday parade. Up here, the parade takes place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It is called the Stafford’s Downtown Petoskey Holiday Parade It starts at 10 am and it winds through our streets and our Downtown It ends at the Perry Hotel.

The Petoskey parade features the Petoskey High School Marching Band along with floats and stuff from many of our favorite local business and community groups. It could feature your group if you click here for an application.

I seem to remember that as a kid I looked forward to some rather large and happy elf showing up at the end of the parade and getting a key to the hearts of the children of Detroit from the mayor.
Fortunately the Petoskey parade is on a different day so that same elf can make it here at the end of our parade as well. Back then, we could go have a chat with Santa up on the twelfth floor of the Downtown Hudsons on Woodward Avenue. Now we can just stop by the Perry Hotel a few blocks away and thank him for all the wonderful things he will be bringing us in a month or so.