Tradition in lights

The holiday season breeds tradition like no other time of year: the food we place on the table, the movies we put on in the background, the gum drop photo frame we hang on the tree.

We devoted this week's SE Live to our traditional holiday movie preview for those of you who like to celebrate with the stars. In an upcoming section we'll lay out several local traditions for you to pencil into your iCal.

One Cape Girardeau tradition starts before then and doesn't technically fall into the events category.

The Holiday of Lights display in Cape County Park North began Thursday and will shine brightly from dusk to about 11:30 p.m. through Jan. 1.

I have a long-standing December tradition of driving around with friends to look at Christmas lights. I started my Holiday of Lights tradition the year I moved here and look forward to continuing it this year.

I'm the car going way too slow and occasionally stopping to look to both sides. I'm sorry. If you get behind me, please just take a deep breath and look around.

The stories behind the displays are steeped in tradition as well. The businesses, community groups and individuals have set up displays for years.

The first Holiday of Lights had 11 entries in 1987. More than 200 displays line the path around the pond in the county park this year.