{"id":12522,"date":"2020-12-24T18:33:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T18:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12522"},"modified":"2020-12-24T18:33:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T18:33:03","slug":"drive-thru-christmas-parade-brightens-holiday-spirits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12522","title":{"rendered":"Drive-thru Christmas parade brightens holiday spirits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
One of the many participants during the 2020 Los Fresnos Christmas festival. <\/em><\/strong>Photo: Tony Vindell \/ LFN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By TONY VINDELL<\/strong>
LFN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School groups danced. A number of floats stood across from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses decorated their respective stands. And the mystical character known as Santa Claus waved at people as they passed by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such was the festivity around this year\u2019s Christmas festival of Los Fresnos where the participants stood by and the attendees watched them from inside their vehicles as they made their way through a snake-like roadway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of what Los Fresnos Chamber of Commerce called a reverse parade, some people were treated to a whole frozen turkey, warm tamales and a box of goodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dubbed as a success by those on both aisles, \u201cThe Magic of Christmas\u201d festivity lit the spirits of local residents, from its surrounding areas and from the many visitors who showed up from nearby cities, including Brownsville, San Benito and Harlingen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Los Fresnos residents Norma and Esperanza Perales said the way the festival was held couldn\u2019t have been any better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love it,\u201d one of the Perales said. \u201cThis is quite different than what we are used to having.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the current health situation caused by the coronavirus, the festival was held Saturday, Dec. 12, on the rodeo grounds instead of at the city\u2019s Memorial Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Henderson said the city, chamber, school district, churches and businesses contributed to the community-wide event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is for the benefit of the children, parents and the community as a whole,\u201d said the Rotarian as he and others were judging the entries. \u201cI feel great about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 27 entries were registered for the event and each qualified for a contest set up for the festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winners were Las Yescas Elementary \u201cWhoville\u201d for best float display; Los Fresnos Elementary Conjunto for best band; and Los Fresnos High School Cheer Team for best drill team\/dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Val Champion, the chamber of commerce executive director, echoed a similar remark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a great turnout,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is for all the kids, for families and for the whole community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oscar and Sandra Olivarez of Harlingen and Alvaro Salazar of Brownsville, said they were impressed with the way the festival organizers arranged the Christmas-related event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is awesome,\u201d said Sandra Olivarez. \u201cThis has brought so much joy to us and our family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-hour long festival was a sort of celebration of life, particularly with today\u2019s circumstances created by a virus that has been causing so much pain and sorrow to people all over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some businesses have a tradition to have Christmas-related parties called tamaladas this time of year where hundreds of tamales are ordered and served for several hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in Los Fresnos, tamales can be found at a number of eateries.
At some city events, such as during the swearing in of the new City Mayor Alejandro \u201cAlex\u201d Flores, tamales and cup cakes were served during a reception to welcome the new city leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And during this year\u2019s Christmas festival, thousands of tamales were handed over to those who attended the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angel Alarcon, who along with his wife Marisela, owns and runs Parra\u2019s Tamales and Restaurant, said the tamale give-away took place thanks to the city and their own participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cooked 500 dozen tamales,\u201d he said and they handed a dozen tamales to each car that stopped by their stand during the festival. \u201cWe will give them away until they are gone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By TONY VINDELLLFN School groups danced. A number of floats stood across from each other. Businesses decorated their respective stands. And the mystical character known as Santa Claus waved at people as they passed by. Such was the festivity around this year\u2019s Christmas festival of Los Fresnos where the participants stood by and the attendees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-12522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12528,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12522\/revisions\/12528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}