As organizers of Dowagiac’s Candle-light Christmas Parade are expanding pre-parade entertainment to include the return of this community’s tree-lighting ceremony, school groups, churches and community organizations have until Nov. 17 to make arrangements to appear in one of southwestern Michigan’s largest holiday events.

Parade registration forms are available by calling the Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce at 782-8212 or by visiting the Chamber office, located within the historic Dowagiac train depot.

Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital and the Chamber of Commerce are the host of Dowagiac’s two-part Old-Fashioned Christmas Celebration,  which includes Christmas Open House Weekend Nov. 19-21 and the Dec. 3 Candle-light Parade and Tree-lighting Ceremony.

Event costs for Dowagiac’s $7,100 holiday celebration have been underwritten, in part, by Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital and the following corporate sponsors: Matthew Cripe Dental P.C., Dr. Charles Burling and Dr. Jon Gillesby, Family Fare, Leader Publications and The Timbers of Cass County.

Reminiscent of a holiday scene artist Normal Rockwell may have painted, organizers of this year’s 29th annual candle-light parade are pleased to reinstate the community tree-lighting ceremony that was first introduced more than a decade ago.

Trish Brazo, team leader at Huntington Bank in Dowagiac, who is a member of the Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, is chairman of this year’s lighted procession.

“During the mid-1990s, as the holidays approached, the city’s Department of Public  Services each year anchored a towering evergreen of 20 to 25 feet within the front, landscaped area of what was then the new Beckwith Park, which was developed in 1995 by the Downtown Development Authority during its Phase V streetscape construction,” Vickie Phillipson, program director for the Chamber of Commerce and DDA, said Tuesday.

“Years later, the tree-lighting ceremony was put on hold, when the park’s permanent landscaping had matured, preventing enough room for the evergreen’s tree trunk to be slipped into the submerged cylinder, hidden beneath the ground.”

Phillipson chaired Dowagiac’s holiday parade during those early years, taking it from a Saturday afternoon event of a mere 30 units to what is now an evening spectacular of more than 100 parade entries.

She continues to raise funding for the two-part holiday celebration and chairs activities that will be presented during the three-day Christmas Open House Weekend Nov. 19-21.

“The beautiful blue spruce, which in later years was donated to the city by A-1 Expert Tree Service of Dowagiac, has since grown to a height that has prompted us to reinstate the tree-lighting ceremony for our 2010 event,” Brazo announced Tuesday.

The Candle-light Christmas Parade, which in recent years has become one of southwestern Michigan’s largest holiday events, steps off downtown on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m.

With the return of the tree-lighting ceremony, Brazo said announcements by that evening’s two Masters of Ceremonies and pre-parade entertainment, which begins at 6 p.m., will be repositioned from the corner of Front and Main streets back to Beckwith Park.

Line-up for the holiday parade, which encircles the central business district, begins at 6 p.m.

Brazo encourages parade units to use Christmas lighting on their floats, as together they create a spectacular, traveling procession of lights.

“People walking alongside floats or riding in horse-drawn units should also consider holding candles or battery-operated candles.  To make this a truly magical evening for all to enjoy, we encourage parade entries to use their imaginations and lots and lots of tiny white lights!”

Entry into the parade is open free of charge to the public, schools, churches, community organizations and businesses.

“The only thing we ask is that each of the units is decorated in some fashion for the holidays,” Brazo added.

Due to the popularity of the event and its increasing number of entries that traditionally exceed 100, and to provide for proper planning, Brazo said registration forms will not be accepted after Nov.  17.

Approximately a week prior to the event, units will receive their line-up materials.

A complete list of Christmas Open House and parade night activities are contained in the holiday brochure, now available from the Chamber of Commerce by calling 782-8212.