to 4,000 to participate in city’s Christmas parade

A full enrollment of floats, bands, cars, trucks, marchers, horses and motorcycles is being readied for Saturday morning’s Vicksburg Christmas parade, its organizer said Thursday.

The parade is scheduled to start at 11, with 75 units involving some 3,000 to 4,000 people set to travel along Washington Street from Belmont to Jackson, parade committee chairman Steve Pranger said. About as many people are expected to line up to watch the parade, bringing its total to about 6,000 to 8,000 people, he added.

“We’ve got a full parade,” he said. “Last year we had a few openings, but this year there’s been a bigger response.”

The parade’s grand marshal will be retired Warren County Deputy Sheriff Otho Jones, who was chief deputy of operations when he left the department in September after 31 years of service.

“We’ve been trying to honor people doing community service without a lot of recognition the last few years,” Pranger said of the committee’s selection of Jones. “He gets to sit in one of the very first units in a convertible car.”

The route of the annual parade, which lasts about an hour, has not changed from last year’s, Pranger said. Parade floats and other participants are to line up beforehand along Belmont Street between Drummond and Washington between 10 and 10:30, he added.

“The night before, we put numbers on the spaces,” Pranger said of preparations for the event, “getting everybody in the right lineup. It gets to be a little congested. Most people have been in the parade before, so it’s like a second routine to them.”

Also as before, the top floats as judged by Vicksburg Jaycees are to be chosen in four categories: schools, community and civic groups, most original and best overall, Pranger said.

In another Christmas event Saturday, the annual Jingle Bell Junction arts, crafts and gifts bazaar is set for 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Live entertainment and an 11 a.m.-until-2 p.m. visit from Santa are scheduled at the event, for which admission is free