Our Opinion: Holiday events add to the season's excitement

The energy of the holiday season events builds excitement for young and old alike, and there is no shortage of holiday events in our part of the world to entertain and enrich.

Among them:

• Christmas tree lighting: 5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29, at Vasterling Suites Courtyard, 151 N. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau. This annual tradition, sponsored by Old Town Cape, will feature carol singing and plenty of food and drink, culminating with Santa and Mrs. Claus lighting the 30-foot tree.

• Small Business Saturday Downtown Shopping Spree: Saturday, Nov. 30, in downtown Cape Girardeau. This year’s Old Town Cape event highlighting small businesses has a bingo twist, with participants vying to win two $500 downtown shopping sprees. For more information, call (573) 334-8085 or email savannahedwards@oldtowncape.org.

• “Sounds of the Season”: 3 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 1, Discovery Life Church, 254 S. Silver Springs Road in Cape Girardeau. This year’s installment of this annual concert, sponsored by Mercy Health Foundation Southeast, will feature Casie Janet Blattner, Dr. Andrew Moore, Clayton Hahs, Encore Dance Academy, Brothers Walker and Kate Broeckling. KFVS12 will broadcast the concert at 10:35 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22, and at 6 a.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 25. KFVS-TOO will broadcast the concert at 7 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. Dec. 25.

• Parade of Lights: 5 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 1, Broadway and Main Street in Cape Girardeau. “Christmas Magic in Downtown Cape Girardeau” is the theme of this year’s event, sponsored by Old Town Cape.

• “In Terra Pax”: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, Bedell Performance Hall, Southeast Missouri State University River Campus in Cape Girardeau. Southeast Symphony Orchestra will perform this choral and orchestral work by British composer Gerald Finzi that interweaves the biblical nativity story with text from Robert Bridges’ poem “Noel: Christmas Eve 1913”.

• “Big Band Holiday Jukebox”: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, and Saturday, Dec. 7, Bedell Performance Hall, Southeast Missouri State University River Campus in Cape Girardeau. This annual event showcases SEMO Department of Music and Conservatory of Theatre and Dance students.

• Sikeston tree lighting and Parade of Lights: time to be determined, Friday, Dec. 6, Legion Park and Downtown Sikeston.

• Scott City Christmas Parade: 5 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 7, Crites Street to Lincoln Street in Scott City.

• Uptown Jackson Christmas Parade: 5 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 8, Main Street and Uptown Jackson. “A Country Christmas” is the theme.

• Live nativity: 5 to 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 13, Saint Francis Cancer Institute, Entrance 6, 211 Saint Francis Drive in Cape Girardeau.

• “Christmas Rocks, with Bach to the Future”: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, Scout Hall, 420 Broadway in Cape Girardeau. Enjoy cookies and cocoa while listening to “sparkling, funky and jazzy rocked-out arrangements” of the world’s holiday classics. Featured performers include Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, five-time Grammy winners, and Tracy Silverman, touted as “the world’s greatest exponent of the electric violin”.

• Live nativity: 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20, First Midwest Bank, 1820 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau. Santa will be on hand so youngsters can share their Christmas wishes.

• Scott County church tour: 4:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 20. Tour several churches throughout Scott County — Concordia Lutheran Church, 836 Park, Sikeston; St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 245 W. Front St., Sikeston; First Christian Church, 1006 N. Main, Sikeston; Hunter Memorial Presbyterian Church, 723 Allen Blvd., Sikeston; Open Door Fellowship Church, 204 Jackson St., Sikeston; Eisleben Lutheran Church, 432 Lutheran Lane, Scott City; St. Denis Catholic Church, 135 N. Winchester, Benton; and St. Lawrence Catholic Church (Grotto of Mary, live nativity, and 1848 original log church, located in rear of stone church), 1017 State Hwy. A, New Hamburg.

These events will add to the joy of the Christmas season. We hope to see you at some of them.