Everyone has different traditions for celebrating the holiday season, and in a lot of small towns, one of those is going to the annual Christmas parade.
Filled with festive decorations and folks yelling "Merry Christmas!" everywhere you turn, what's not to love about a Christmas parade? Of course, while every parade, big or small, in the South is special, some of them do tend to have some similar sights and sounds.
For instance, you can pretty much count on there being tractors pulling trailers full of candy-throwing kiddos, and it's going to snow - and by snow, we mean soap -at least once (even if everyone in attendance is wearing T-shirts because it's actually 70 degrees outside).
A small-town Christmas parade wouldn't be complete without watching groups of local kids in matching outfits dance their way down Main Street. The older ones will perform synchronized choreography, and maybe even a couple of cartwheels, to "All I Want for Christmas is You" as they'll smile and wave to the crowds while the little ones - stifling yawns and stopping to pick up missed candy from the floats before them -will do what we're guessing is probably supposed to be a tap dance to "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth". It won't be synchronized in any way, shape, or form, but gosh, they'll look cute doing it anyway.
There might not be the huge, elaborately decorated floats bigger cities tend to roll out for their Christmas parades year after year, but small-town parades make up for that with an abundance of enthusiasm from everyone involved (which is pretty much everyone in the town). Every city department and local business or organization is bound to participate, and they're going to go all out for it too. In the case of the sanitation department, that means a garbage truck decked out, Griswold-style, in lights, proving that anything covered in twinkle lights can be pretty even the giant truck that's normally used to haul away dirty diapers, rotten vegetables, and Lord knows what else five days a week.
Remember how we said everyone participates in a small-town Christmas parade? Well, that includes the local car club, so you can expect to see its members -- whether that be Jeeps, Corvettes, Mustangs, etc. -- all decked out with reindeer antlers, blaring holiday music from their sound systems and rev-ing their engines as they move at a snail's pace down the parade route. You may see so many of them that you'll question how you never noticed there were that many cars in your town to begin with, but hey, as long as they've brought candy to throw and understand they better turn it up when "Run Run Rudolph" comes on. The more, the merrier.
A big reason people love Christmas parades is that you usually leave with a plastic bag full of candy. Unfortunately, though, some of that candy is inevitably going to be tossed -- no, thrown, fast pitch-style -- directly at your head by a truck bed full of little leaguers, as if there's a college scout somewhere in the crowd and their dreams of playing professional baseball depend entirely on how many bystanders they can take out along the route. Your saving grace is that you can usually hear them coming. It'll sound like rainfall, but it's just a bunch of candy hitting the sidewalk at a rapid speed because people are too preoccupied with ducking to catch any of it.
There are a lot of different ways kids participate in their local Christmas parades, but the most common is by sitting criss-cross on a meticulously decorated trailer pulled by a tractor or pick-up truck. The trailer will have a posterboard sign toting what organization they're with, and the kids will start out tossing fistfuls of candy with gusto before running out halfway through the route and being resigned to just waving with way, way less gusto.
No parade is complete without some music, and other than the jams being pumped out by that train of Jeeps and dance troupes, it's usually the marching bands that get the crowd dancing. They'll all be playing ironically "Let It Snow!" while pairing their uniforms with a Santa hat, making it incredibly difficult for parents to differentiate their child from the others. Did they get a picture of their daughter as she marched by or was that the other flute player? Your guess is as good as theirs.
Who needs a flying sleigh when you can get a lift from the local fire department? A lot of small towns make good use of what they have by wrapping up their Christmas parade with an appearance by the big guy in the red suit, and they make sure everyone gets a clear view of him by putting him atop the tallest truck in their fleet. Of course, his outfit does tend to make him blend in, but the flashing lights and sirens hopefully signal to everyone that Santa's ride is making its way around the corner, and it brings a year's supply of those tiny candy canes with it.
It's no secret that in small towns, everyone knows everyone and when there's a big, annual event taking place, you can pretty much count on everyone to attend. There's no need to ask anyone if they're going to the parade or not. Just assume they are, and chances are they'll all be talking later at the Texaco about "How about that flying rouge baton!" until this time next year.
Christmas Au Gratin Potatoes
INGREDIENTS
- 5 cups baking potatoes, sliced thin (¼ inch or thinner) about 4-5 medium potatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 large onion, sliced thin (¼ inch or thinner)
- 4 ounces uncured pancetta, cubed (or 5 slices bacon)
- 3 tablespoon flour
- 2 cups half & half
- 2 cup (6 ounces) shredded Gruyere Cheese, divided
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped fresh Parsley, reserve a little for topping
- ½ cup chopped chives
- 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
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Scrub potatoes and cut out any impurities. Slice potatoes thinly with a mandoline. Make sure they are ¼ thickness or thinner.
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In a skillet, melt olive oil and 1 tablespoon. Add sliced onions and cook on low heat until translucent, about 10 min.
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Remove onions from the pan and place in a small bowl until ready to assemble potatoes. Add pancetta to skillet and cook until cooked through about 8-10 min.
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In a saucepan melt the remaining butter and whisk in flour. Let bubble for 1-2 minutes on med heat.
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Whisk in half & half
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When the sauce is smooth, add 1 ½ cups of the Gruyere cheese, garlic powder, salt, parsley, pancetta, and chives (if you want to top potatoes with pancetta and parsley, reserve a little bit for topping).
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Grease a 9x13 pan or small cast iron skillet. Place potatoes standing up. Top with onions and divide them between the potatoes. Top with pancetta.
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Pour sauce over. Slightly shift the potatoes to help cream evenly distribute and coat the potatoes. You want sauce in between each potato.
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Top with pepper and ½ cup remaining cheese.
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Bake covered with foil at 400 degrees F for 25 mins. Uncover and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes until potatoes are cooked through and cheese is bubbly. Add any bacon or chives you reserved. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
