What can I say about the 50th anniversary of our favorite Christmas tradition?

We have been looking forward to this day since last year’s event. We knew it would be special to be part of so significant a milestone, and we weren’t disappointed. We were there in time for the parade:

We always enjoy hearing the Lewis & Clark Fife & Drum Corps play:

And then the hunt for the legends of Christmas. Let’s face it, Jack Frost is always our number one priority…(we even brought along our binder of character cards from past years, and had him and some of our other favorite characters sign it).

And the Master of Revels is a close second (he was actually the first character we saw, and the first to sign our binder!).

We found a good number of the other characters…by my count, we saw 25 out of the 33 characters/groups:

I especially enjoyed meeting the Christkind while wearing a dirndl!

The Evergreens are a fun group, and it was especially great to hear them sing “White Christmas” since they look like stepped right out of Wallace and Davis’ act!

There was a special display (hosted by none other than Father Time!) in the Tourism Center looking back at the history of the event, and collecting memories for a time capsule to be opened in another 50 years.

It was a beautiful day to be in St. Charles…I will never tire of the historic charm of the city!

Our Christmas tradition:

I am so glad we starting attending this event around 20 years ago, and it’s pretty cool knowing we’ve been part of it for almost half of its run…here’s to making more memories for the future!