Barring any unforeseen changes, the Cullman County Christmas Parade won’t miss out on a return visit for 2020.

At its regular meeting this week, the Hanceville City Council signed off on once again hosting the annual holiday celebration, which takes local marching bands, Christmas-themed floats, red fire engines, and (of course) Santa down U.S. Highway 31 for a stop-over in the middle of town.

This year’s parade will be held on Saturday, Dec. 5, kicking off at its customary 12 p.m. start time. The parade runs a generously lengthy route down Highway 31, setting off from Wallace State Community College and ending at the city’s main downtown fire station.

Hanceville leaders also gave the green light this week to what’s becoming an annual local tradition: the Tinsel Trail Christmas tree lighting and walk-around light display at Veterans Park.

Sponsored by the Hanceville Civitan Club, the trail will open with a lighting ceremony on Friday, Dec. 4, followed by an evening open house featuring downtown merchants, who’ll open their doors to welcome shoppers and browsers already in the holiday spirit who wander downtown after the tree lighting. The Tinsel Trail lighting will take place at 5 p.m., with the open house ready to kick off as soon as the lighting ceremony’s over. After that, the trail will remain open free of charge to park visitors until after Christmas.

The council also agreed to accommodate an improvised Halloween Trunk-or-Treat event put together by the Hanceville Elementary School PTO as a replacement for the annual evening Trunk-or-Treat customarily hosted by local churches, which was canceled this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During school hours on Oct. 30, Bulldog Lane will shut down to make way for the costumed fun, with organizers promising there’ll be plenty of trick-or-treat Halloween candy.

Also at its Thursday meeting, the city council honored outgoing council member Charles Wilson with a commemorative plaque recognizing his three terms of service. Wilson makes way for incoming council member Patty Nail Dean, who will be sworn in with the rest of the new city administration by municipal judge Steven Gravlee at an upcoming organizational meeting at the Hanceville Civic Center. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Nov. 2, with an on-site reception honoring the new council immediately following.