By DENA WEIGEL BELL
WaKeeney Travel Blog
WAKEENEY – The holiday season has arrived! If you’re as excited about the holidays as we are then we invite you to come to WaKeeney to celebrate with us on Saturday, November 25th, underneath the lights of our famous 35-foot Christmas tree.
Our municipal crews have been busy decorating the “Christmas City of the High Plains” with three miles of electrical wiring, 1400 lbs. of greenery, 1100 yards of greenery roping, and 6,000 lightbulbs. They’ve hung the handcrafted wood cutouts of wreaths, bows and bells with care, and at the 67th Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony we’ll be flipping the switch on their hard work.
WaKeeney’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony is full of Christmas traditions. Take a ride down Main Street on a horse drawn wagon and enjoy a scrumptious bowl of soup at the VFW Hall at 4:30PM before joining us at 6PM for the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.
Keep an eye out for Santa Claus because he’ll be joining us, too! Follow him to North Pole Park where kids can share their Christmas list with him. We hear he might be bringing along treats.
This year, experience Santa’s annual adventure for yourself on “Santa’s Sleigh Ride,” a new virtual reality ride with motion added from VR In Motion. It will put you in the driver’s seat, flying down from the North Pole, through the night sky, to the middle of a Christmas village. The ride will be operating in Downtown WaKeeney from 5-9PM by JNT Company and brought to us courtesy of WaKeeney Travel & Tourism.
Join in on the chorus of your favorite Christmas carols with the Fort Hays Singers. They will be strolling our Main Street from 5-6PM, dressed in Renaissance Madrigal costumes and performing classic carols. After the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony follow the Fort Hays Singers to the VFW Hall at 7PM for a concert of your favorite holiday tunes. There will be a free will donation to assist in funding their upcoming trip to Salzburg, Austria in 2018.
Put on your jingle bells and polish up that holiday spirit on Saturday, November 25th, for the largest display of lights between Kansas City and Denver. There’s nowhere better in Northwest Kansas to welcome the arrival of everyone’s favorite holiday than in the “Christmas City of the High Plains” in WaKeeney, Kansas.