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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

HELENA – With much of the community and vendors lining the streets and cheering into the night, the city of Helena welcomed another Christmas season to town with its annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Friday, Dec. 6.

The celebratory festivities brought the chill of the holiday weather, but that did not keep numerous Helena residents and visitors from joining in Old Town to light up the night.

As the night began, the 34 vendors that signed up for the event lined up and down Main Street for people to visit throughout the evening, while the main musical act of the evening took the stage to entertain all who attended.

Country and Alabama’s own western band OverDrive from Fort Payne played throughout the night, presenting many Christmas tunes to mix along with their assortment of country songs for many to enjoy.

The festivities continued with a welcome and thanks from Helena Mayor Brian Puckett to all of the city officials and other citizens who showed up for a night of fun, celebration, as well as to those who helped set everything up.

“My favorite part of the night probably is when we started our ceremony and we recognize all of the city leaders and state leaders that have come to join us for the evening,” said Rebekah Henderson, chair of the Helena Beautification Board. “It was a fantastic night. It’s my favorite night of the year, I just love it.”

On top of the welcome and thanks that were given, the organizers of the Buck Creek Festival took some time, as they do every year, to present some generous donations to various organizations in the city that they raised as a result of the festival

The Buck Creek Festival donated the following amounts to the listed organizations:

• Equip was presented with $1,000
• The Cahaba River Society was presented with $1,000
• The Helena High School Art Department was presented with $1,000
• The Helena Belles were presented $500
• The Helena Beautification Board was presented with $500

Following all of the welcoming statements and donations, a performance was put on by the Dance Et Cetera dance team, who performed an entertaining number despite the cold conditions.

The grand event of lighting the Christmas tree took place after the performance, as Helena High School’s homecoming king and queen helped do the honors for the festival, which then gave way for the band to play Alabama’s classic holiday tune “Christmas in Dixie”.

The togetherness of the entire festival brought a smile to many of the organizers, including Henderson. In her opinion, this might have been the city’s best one yet compared to all of the ones that have been held in the past.

“I just love being out there with our community. They come out bundled up, they come out ready to shock and ready to light the tree,” Henderson said. “That just makes me so happy because that means we are making an impact year after year and that we’re doing something that is a free event… We’ve been able to make it bigger each year, and I think this year was the biggest and my favorite so far.”

Going forward, Henderson hopes to keep helping make this night of celebration better than previous years, trying to make a larger mark on the community with each holiday season that comes around.

The Beautification Board helps organize much of the event. Outside of Henderson, members of the board include Christina Levio, Cory Johnson, Jennifer Stringfellow, Stephanie Gray, Peggy Holly, Stephane Dortch, Luther Jarmon, Sandra Rothe, John Hodge and Joy Childers.

“My beautification board is phenomenal. They get out and they work hard and they get no credit for it,” Henderson said. “They work for several months beforehand just helping get everything ready and we would just like for it to grow and make it one of the big events for Helena for the year.

Visitors were all heavily encouraged to continue interacting with the shops, vendors and food trucks in attendance even after the tree lighting, making the most of this special night of celebration in the city.