EPHRATA — It may not have gotten all that much above freezing on Saturday, but that didn’t stop folks from lining Basin Street to watch this year’s tree lighting and Christmas parade.

“It was longer than last year,” said long-time Ephrata resident Diane Clark. “Traditionally, we’re here every year.”

“I like everything about living in Ephrata,” Clark added.

The parade, organized by the Ephrata Chamber of Commerce and renamed Bells on Basin, concluded a day of community events that included Breakfast with Santa in the morning at the Ephrata Recreation Center, a fun-run at Ephrata High School, an Elf-on-the Shelf small business scavenger hunt, Polar Express activity cards for kids at participating local businesses, and a tree lighting in front of the recreation center just before the parade kicked off at 5 p.m.

“It was a great parade,” said Rita Witte, director and president of the Ephrata Chamber of Commerce. “I look forward to it. I like to see the lights and the people out and about.”

Witte said the 2022 parade was longer than previous years, with entries from iFiber, Marson and Marson Lumber, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, the Grant County Public Utility District, the Ephrata Fire Department, the Grant Transit Authority and others all in trucks decked out in Christmas lights and decorations or — in the case of the GCSO — some flashing lights and the Grinch in a jail-orange jumpsuit sitting on the back of the agency’s paddy wagon.

“It wasn’t difficult to organize, but maybe I say that because we’ve done it for so many years,” Witte said.

Witte said blue and white lights were strung on both the city’s Christmas tree and the light poles in downtown Ephrata with the help from the PUD and the city of Ephrata, which also helped provide some grant funding to brighten up downtown for the parade. She also said with the rebranding of the parade — formerly known as Miracle of Main Street — as Bells on Basin, the chamber was hoping to put bells up as well, though there wasn’t time this year.

“We’re looking to do that next year,” she said.

Brandon and Jessica Hatch, and their three children Morgan, Madison and Marilee, stood in the slush along Basin Street, watching the Ephrata Christmas parade for the very first time. Hatch said he and his family had just relocated to the Columbia Basin from Snohomish in search of a somewhat easier pace of life.

“We grew up in a small town, and finding that again has been huge for us,” Hatch said. “We wanted our kids to experience it.”

Witte said she hopes the parade will be even bigger next year.

“I would like to get some more people downtown. The weather was not so conducive,” she said. “But it is Christmas!”

Charles H. Featherstone may be reached at [email protected]. For more local news, download the Columbia Basin Herald App – available for iOS and Android devices, or visit us at www.columbiabasinherald.com.