Flip the switch
Tom Hasslinger | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years, 11 months AGO
<p>Kierra Shannon, 2, of Coeur d'Alene, cracks a smile while holding candles with her cousins Friday during the 25th Annual Holiday Lights Show and Opening Ceremony in Coeur d'Alene.</p>
<p>An onlooker is silhouetted against the fireworks display during the holiday lighting ceremony.</p>
<p>Three-year-old Maxon Lindley gets a closer look at an oncoming attraction during the parade that kicked off Coeur d'Alene's Holiday Lights Show.</p>
<p>Tyler Damron, a senior with the Coeur d'Alene High School marching band, beats his drum while performing in the holiday parade.</p>
<p>Groups illuminated by candlelight sing Christmas carols with the thousands of others who were in attendance at the Holiday Lights Show.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - OK, little Madyson Marx said it's better than Disneyland.
That's not the official score between Coeur d'Alene's annual Resort Holiday Light Show and the southern California playground, but Madyson said it's so.
"Yes," she said, bundled in ski cap, coat and gloves and propped on her mom's shoulders on Second Street after the fireworks exploded.
She was asked if the local show was better than Disney's Mecca.
"Yes, yes, yes," she said.
And little Madyson visits Southern California often, her family said, so maybe she's a worthy judge.
Scorecards aside, Coeur d'Alene's annual holiday parade launched in traditional fashion Friday evening, with thousands of people cramming Sherman Avenue by 5 p.m., to watch the show.
Once featured on ABC's Good Morning America, it doesn't take big-time cameras for the show to go on.
Big trucks, bigger trucks with holiday lights, dancers in Santa hats, you name it, the hour-long parade moved down right on cue, followed by the 8-minute 1,400 shell, 3,000-shot explosion over Lake Coeur d'Alene.
And those who know, know to grab a seat early. Those who dilly dally have to sit a few steps back.
"That's how it gets," said Marshall Crigger, before the parade started. He brought his family down for the show but had to post up against the fence off Sherman Avenue away from the street. "Hopefully nobody is going to stand here in front of us, but you never know."
Linda Van Fleet and Andy Bershad grabbed seats inside the Eagles at 4 p.m., an hour before starting.
Inside, warm, with window view, they brought leftover Thanksgiving sandwiches to watch it all.
"This is the gentile, sophisticated way to watch the parade," Van Fleet said.
Then an hour later, the parade started, finished, and all the Sherman Avenue revelers followed the last float to the edge of The Coeur d'Alene Resort where the fireworks blew up and the holiday lights illuminated and it was the best thing little Madyson Marx had seen.