It’s beginning to look like a Hometown Christmas in Albany as plans are in the works for this holiday season.

The Cooperative Extension Office has decided to join forces with the Clinton County Fair Board in order to make this year’s Christmas at Home bigger and better than years past.

On November 30, starting at 4 p.m., the Christmas on the Square events will begin, followed by the First Annual Christmas Parade to begin at 5 p.m.

Once the parade is over, events will continue around the square with the lighting of the Christmas Tree scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

“We are moving the tree lighting back 30 minutes because of the parade,” Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences Christy Stearns said.

The Clinton County Fair Board is taking the reigns of the parade, with line up beginning at 3 p.m. at West View Shopping Center.

There are several categories that will be judged and prizes for first place in each category will be awarded.

Those categories include: Decorated floats, decorated pickup trucks, decorated golf carts, holiday characters walkers, decorated horses/wagons, decorated cars/tractors and a people’s choice award.

Registration forms can be picked up at Davis Insurance, Clinton County Extension Office, Fig Leaf and Clinton County Pharmacy. All registration forms must be turned in by November 11.

“November 11 is the deadline we are putting for everything,” Stearns said. “That’s also the same day we want businesses to call in and let us know they want to enter the window decorating contest and November 11 is also the deadline for Operation Hometown Christmas for people who are looking for assistance for the holidays.”

Fair board member Julie Thrasher said the route will start at IGA and circle Albany First Christian Church and then turn to head back by the courthouse and back to IGA parking lot.

“We wanted to keep everything around the square during that time,” Thrasher said.

Stearns said one reason to keep people around the square is because events will continue once the parade is over.

“Santa and Mrs. Claus will be in the parade, as well as Benny the Elf,” Stearns said.

Fair board member Sarah Wilson-Browning said all the clues for Benny the Elf will come out starting December 1 this year.

“We want people to think about what does their hometown mean to them, so that’s what we want them to think about for the window displays, the parade and everything else,” Stearns said. “We know that Wednesday night is a church night and we understand there are a lot of services going on, but we’ve had the tree lighting and Christmas on the Square on a Wednesday before and what we’ve found is a lot of our churches use that as an outreach for people.”

Stearns said she welcomes all churches to come and participate on November 30.

Around 6:30, all the activities will focus around the Community Christmas Tree with performances by the Community Choir and before the lighting of the tree, a short message will be delivered for those in attendance.

“We want the churches to come out and support all of the things that are going on,” Stearns said.

Operation Hometown Christmas is also in the planning stages and the event will be here before we know it.

“The goal of Operation Hometown Christmas is to have one standard application, one standard database that everybody works from, that way if someone needs assistance for themselves or their family then all of that information comes from one place,” Stearns said.

Stearns and Browning both agreed they could use volunteers to help with gift wrapping and other things that go into Operation Hometown Christmas.

“There are so many ways to give back into Operation Hometown Christmas … even coming out and volunteering and helping package things together. It’s probably two solid weeks of sorting, delivering, handing out … it’s a lot.”

Stearns added no level of giving is too small for Hometown Christmas.

“We have averaged about 400 kids and adults with around 95 sponsors,” Stearns said. “It takes a lot to pull it off. We’re excited because we just received our first sponsor from the Chamber of Commerce last week and we know it’s time for those types of donations to start to come in.”

Stearns said it has been great getting the support needed to do Hometown Christmas.

“We’ve had great support from the Community Service Club at the high school,” Stearns said. “Those teens have been great in being a part and helping out with Hometown Christmas.”

With Hometown Christmas being a staple in Clinton County and with the fact it helps so many families around the holidays, Stearns said they have been able to meet the needs of families to a greater capacity and the sponsors love it because they know exactly where their money has gone.

“We can provide exactly, down to the penny, what we’ve done with any of those donations and what has happened to the families throughout the year,” Stearns said.

Applications for Operation Hometown Christmas, will be at the Extension Office and at WANY. Stearns said even if it is after work hours, there will be some on the porch at the Extension Office.

“We want to push push push November 11th,” Stearns said. “Everything has to be turned in for everything by November 11. We have been doing live broadcasts over the radio to try and get the word out.”

On November 19, the Clinton County Fair Board will be hosting a Winter pageant that will include a baby show and age divisions all the way up to a Mrs. category.

“The winners of those categories will be able to ride in the parade on November 30,” Thrasher said. “We hope to grow on it. There is plenty of information on the Fair Board’s Facebook page.”

Stearns said everything happening ties to getting people to think about what hometown Christmas means to them.

“There are a lot of new activities to get people to think about what the holidays means to us locally and ways to support our local economy,” Stearns said. “It’s going to be a barn burner night on November 30. We are going to spread a lot of holiday cheer.”