By Emmy Benton, Staff Writer
Imagine: You’re standing outside with friends, family and hundreds of community members in downtown Manteo, waiting for the Christmas tree to be lit. You’ve been drinking hot chocolate around the fire when the countdown starts — five, four, three, two, one! — and all of a sudden the Christmas tree is bright and bells ring all around you. Everyone “oohs” and “ahhs.” You go home excited for the holiday season and ready for the parade the next day.
Reality check: It’s 2020.
Officials with the town of Manteo are sad to say that the event everyone looks forward to won’t be able to happen this year due to the pandemic. But they have worked hard to still make this Christmas season just as memorable and magical.
“Unfortunately, the crowd-gathering restriction put in place by the State of North Carolina due to COVID-19 has caused the cancellation of the 2020 Christmas Tree Lighting and Christmas Parade,” Town Manager James Ayers said.
Even though the tree lighting and parade aren’t able to happen, the town has been working on alternatives that officials hope will be just as fun and exciting.
“We definitely wanted to do something,” Program Manager Michele Bunce said. “We wanted to try to engage the community and still keep the holiday spirit going in the middle of all this.”
Ayers, like Bunce, is hopeful that the events they have planned this year can bring Christmas cheer during this difficult time.
“The Town of Manteo is working on a wide array of activities designed to promote holiday spirit,” Ayers said.
Their new plan, called A Community Christmas — Celebrating All Things Merry and Bright, has many new components, but also some traditional ones. They have activities planned for everyone in the community to feel the spirit of the holidays.
Instead of the usual two-day event with the tree lighting on Friday and the parade on Saturday, there’s going to be about two weeks of Christmas cheer.
One aspect that will be the same as years past is the wreath contest that the Roanoke Island Garden Club does with the town. The Garden Club gives the businesses wreaths to decorate. The wreaths are then judged and put all over downtown Manteo.
There are also three contests that the town is doing to get everyone in the holiday spirit. There is one for businesses, one for residents and one for performances. The town hopes that these contests will keep the community engaged even though the normal events they know and love aren’t happening in their typical way.
“For the businesses, we’ve got a contest called Making Storefronts Bright, and we’re encouraging them to decorate their business storefronts,” Bunce explained.
The purpose of this contest is two-fold. It’s meant to encourage businesses to make their storefronts look nice for everyone to see and it encourages people to shop local. The business storefront had to be decorated by Dec. 4 to be entered and the winners will be announced Dec. 7.
The second contest is for the residents. The town is calling it Deck the Homes, and they’re having people send in pictures of their own decorations and lights at home.
To be entered into the drawing to win prizes, submit a photo to this email address by the end of the business day on Dec. 11 and the winners will be announced on Dec. 14.
“The third contest is a performance contest and we call that Manteo Merriment,” Bunce said.
The town is asking people to send in videos of choirs performing, dancers, or their families singing at home to show the spirit of the holiday season. These submissions will also be entered into a drawing for prizes. The deadline for this contest is the end of the business day on Dec. 11 at this email address and the winners will be announced on Dec. 14.
The prize for all three contests is a $100 gift card each. The town is doing things this way in an attempt to give back to the community during this difficult time.
The town didn’t want these contests to be cost-prohibitive or expensive, so there are no themes this year that people and businesses will have to abide by. They hope that without the themes, more people can participate and show their holiday spirit. They want to see everyone’s traditions and make this season all about the community.
“It’s a great way to get a snapshot of who your community is,” Bunce said.
Another element that will remain the same is Santa coming to town. The town is adding a big mailbox to the Christmas tree downtown where children can drop their letters off to Santa. He’ll even draw some letters randomly to read on social media. And he’s also planning to appear in neighborhoods all around the town in his chariot that the fire department helps with each year.
“He might have to share some of his magic to maybe perhaps turn on some lights,” Bunce teased. “The Christmas tree has to be lit and maybe he’s the one to do it this year, but we’ll see.”
The town is also amping up all of the decorations throughout Manteo. This includes adding some color to Cartwright Park and putting up the decorations on the light poles just like always.
According to the town’s website, “The Town Christmas tree will continue to shine bright as part of the town’s own community tradition and other Christmas decorations will be enhanced throughout town, adding some extra sparkle this year.”
Furthermore, the last thing the town is planning for the holiday season is a food drive that will go toward helping the three local food pantries in Manteo.
“We’re trying to give back to the community and especially this year with everything that’s gone on, we really want to give back,” Bunce said.
Town staff and the Manteo Police Department are working together to organize the food drive. They’re planning to have people drop off items at Magnolia Market Pavilion, an open-air pavilion, at 408 Queen Elizabeth Avenue in downtown Manteo. More information is coming from the town about dates and times of item collection.
Most of all, the town hopes that these events they have planned will help people during these unusual times to find the joy of the holiday season.
“Downtown Manteo for Christmas is very special and it was very difficult to make these calls,” Bunce said. “But the reason why it is so special is because we love the community and we definitely want to help keep them safe as much as possible.”
Sophomore Emmy Benton can be reached at [email protected].
