Parade Time!

This Saturday is the Stokesdale Christmas Parade, the community's signature event for the season.  Thousands of people will gather this Saturday to see friends and neighbors roll or stroll down Main Street.  We have scouts, marching bands, trucks, tractors, horses, tumblers, churches, and dignitaries in the procession every year.

As usual, Crossroads will host a family fun experience in the front yard of the fire station.  We'll be giving away hot dogs, drinks, desserts, pop corn, and cotton candy.  





We will have face painting and crafts for kids, and we will have a huge bounce house.  


All our festivities will begin around noon, providing you with lots of fun and food before the parade begins at 2:00.  

Then, as the parade rolls by, Crossroads announcers Lisa Bailey and Keith Street will give you the inside story on every entry.  They may also tease the crowd with some Christmas trivia.




The weatherman promises lots of sunshine for a beautiful Stokesdale Christmas Parade experience.  You'll be glad you came!

An Army at the Parade

Saturday was everything I could have hoped for. Well, I could have hoped for snow. But everything else was incredible. The people of Crossroads turned out en mass to serve the community of Stokesdale. And while we were working, we were having a great time!

We helped turn the Stokesdale Holiday Parade into an even bigger celebration. Sharing God’s love is a whole lot of fun. We gave away 700 hot dogs, lots of coffee, hot chocolate and desserts. People kept trying to pay for the food, and we kept explaining that we just wanted to share God’s love with them.

Our band played for a couple of hours before the parade, having a great time. We even played a set after the parade was over.

But during the parade, we provided the play-by-play for the floats as they passed by. Before the parade, we asked for info on all entries. Then from the stage, two of our folks did the Katie Couric, Matt Lauer routine. They added a new element of life to the whole event.

In fact, they did such a good job, they have been invited to do the same thing for a springtime parade nearby. All the responses we have received have been very encouraging.

I am so glad that our people served with such enthusiasm. We owe a debt of thanks to the people who built the stage, ran the sound, played the music, bought the food, prepared the food, served the food, welcomed the crowd, and announced the parade.

May Jesus be glorified as we share his love. May the songs we sang and the conversations we had give glory to him.

Here Comes the Parade!

The Stokesdale Christmas Parade is always just a blast! We enjoy giving to our community and serving them in the name of Jesus. We have had entries in the parade since 1999, but last year we decided to do something different. Every year we had spent hours in the parade lineup, waiting for parade time. We were cold, hungry, and looking for something to do. So last year we gave out food and hot drinks, and we gave a free concert for anyone who wanted to listen. It was our way of sharing kindness with Stokesdale.

As the floats went by our sound stage last year, we realized that we could announce the floats as they came past. We just didn’t know what to say. We also realized that nobody really knew anything about the floats or their organizations.

This year we worked with the Stokesdale parade committee to get the info. Beginning last week organizations have been calling and emailing us with all the information they want announced at the parade.

This week we have dozens of people working to get ready for the parade on Saturday, Dec. 8. Yesterday we picked up the massive sound system, and tonight we will figure out how it works. Others are working with our food give-away, where we will hand out hot dogs, coffee, hot chocolate and desserts. Our band has been eagerly anticipating our concert at noon, playing until the parade steps off at 2 p.m.

This year we have some exciting new elements at the parade. Our stage will be set up at the Stokesdale Fire Station, just across from the main downtown storefronts. For the first time, the parade will have each entry announced as it passes by. A couple of Crossroads folks are gathering info on all the parade entries and, with appropriate humor and banter, will describe the entries as they pass the stage.

We are also giving out coffee with a purpose. The Land of a Thousand Hills coffee company sells coffee grown in Rwanda. By using this coffee, we are supporting business in this developing nation, blessing the coffee workers and helping build their local economy.

This has already been fun. See you Saturday!