Several Christmas festivities to be held in Jackson

I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving and a bountiful feast that included sharing with family and friends. In the rush to get to the Christmas season, we sometimes forget how thankful we should be to live in America -- and especially the heartland.

As we approach Christmas, it can become a hectic, chaotic time. Remember it also is the time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the true spirit of Christmas by giving to others. With that thought in mind, our Jackson Police Department is in the midst of its toy drive.

New, unwrapped toys for children 12 and younger may be deposited until Friday in the Christmas-wrapped boxes at city hall, the police department and various businesses in town. Monetary donations in the form of checks made out to the Jackson Police Department Toy Drive also are accepted.

Toys will be distributed Dec. 20 at the lower level of the Jackson Elks Lodge.

The Jackson Elks again will be participating in distributing food baskets to qualified families in the Jackson School District. This is the 28th year the Elks have been doing their Christmas baskets project.

Our local schools also help with this project by collecting canned goods for the Elks to add to the baskets. The Ministerial Alliance also receives a portion of the canned goods collected by the schools for our Jackson Food Pantry.

The Jackson Elks Christmas baskets will be distributed Dec. 12 at the Jackson Elks Lodge starting at 9 a.m.

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The first Christmas event is the parade through Uptown Jackson, which will be at 3 p.m. Saturday. Several Uptown Jackson businesses also are scheduling their Christmas open houses on that day and will stay open late so you can do some shopping before and after the parade.

That evening, shortly after the parade, the Girl Scouts will have their traditional lighting of luminaries around the courthouse and singing of Christmas carols. The "Make a Joyful Noise" event, sponsored by the parks department, will be at 6 p.m. Dec. 20 in the city park by the swimming pool. There will be a live Nativity scene, Christmas music performances, refreshments and a visit from Santa Claus.

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Next year we will celebrate the bicentennial of the city of Jackson. The Jackson Community Outreach Board will be the "umbrella" organization for bicentennial activities. We are planning activities for each month starting with the official start of celebrations at 2 p.m. Jan. 5 at city hall for the reading of the proclamation establishing 2014 as our bicentennial year, burying of the razor, starting a time capsule and a fashion show featuring some of the Brothers of the Brush.

The board also has a subcommittee planning the February event, which will be a dance with some demonstrations of popular dances through the years. As we get more dates and details, I will keep you informed about the many ways we will celebrate our bicentennial.

Barbara Lohr is the mayor of Jackson.