The week of Dec. 2 was full of Christmas cheer in Warren County, as Wright City, Truesdale and Warrenton all hosted community Christmas events. The events were all free to attend for community members and provided ample opportunities to make holiday memories for attendees. 

Wright City Christmas Parade

The week’s festivities began on the evening of Dec. 5 with Wright City’s Christmas Parade, followed by a bonfire and the lighting of the Kurt Kehoe Memorial Christmas Tree in Diekroeger Park. 

Attendees braved a frigid evening with temperatures in the mid teens as the parade traveled through downtown Wright City to its final destination at Diekroeger Park. 

From there, people were able to enjoy each other's company at the park as a bonfire provided a welcome reprieve from the cold. 

There they were provided with s’mores and hot chocolate and kids were able to write letters to Santa and meet with the man in red himself in the Wil Heiliger Activity Building. 

The event also carried a special significance to Parks Director Stuart Bruning, who was able to continue his predecessor, Kurt Kehoe’s legacy. 

Kehoe was the longtime Parks Director in Wright City who Bruning worked under before assuming the position himself, and the Wright Cty Christmas Tree is named in Kehoe’s honor. 

“It means a lot,” said Bruning. “Christmas was his (Kehoe’s) favorite time of the year, and because what he loved, he loved people and Christmas and the holidays is when that really all comes together.”

Bruning continued, expressing his appreciation for everyone who was able to attend the event and help make it happen. He specifically directed his praise to all the volunteers at the event, without whom it would not have been possible. 

“I’m very happy with the turnout, and I appreciate all the people in the community that turned out to participate in the floats, whether they had a float or were just here to watch it,” said Bruning. 

This was his second year leading the event as parks director and he spoke about how much it meant to him to carry on his mentor’s work. 

“To be in a position where I get to work with those same people, and we sit around and talk about Kurt and his memories, it’s just really cool,” said Bruning. 

Truesdale Community Christmas

The Christmas festivities extended into the weekend with Truesdale’s Community Christmas which was held at the MaryLou Center and Bruer Park. Attendees were able to participate in raffles for toys for the kids and other items for the adults, including a 58-inch TV throughout the event. 

There were also performers working through the crowd for photos including the Grinch, Elsa and Anna from “Frozen” and even Darth Vader. 

City officials were blown away by the turnout at the event with over 200 people in attendance. 

“I know we are close to capacity out there, but we’re really happy to see all the kids here to get the ornaments, write their letters to Santa, and we’re just real excited that we’re able to put on this event,” said Alderman Justin Naranjo. 

Alderman Mike Thomas ran the raffle giving away bicycles and other toys to kids in attendance. 

The Central Missouri Railroad Association also raffled off a model train set. 

In the meantime, families were also able to make Christmas ornaments and meet with Santa. 

Mayor Jerry Cannon addressed the crowd before the close of the event and expressed his appreciation for their support. 

“Thank you for being here, this is your park,” said Cannon. 

The event was closed out with the lighting of the Truesdale Christmas Tree and a performance from Anna and Elsa singing songs from the movie “Frozen.”

Warrenton Hometown Christmas

Directly after the events in Truesdale, the Warrenton Christmas Parade started at Rebecca Boone Elementary and traveled through downtown, leading straight to Warrenton’s Hometown Christmas. 

This was the first year the city had taken over the event, as it had previously been run by the Warrenton Downtown Association. 

“Nobody was really picking up the torch to do the event, so the city took it upon itself to take it over,” said City Director of Operations Jon Struckhoff. 

The City Hall parking lot was transformed into Peppermint Square for the event, with plenty of vendors for attendees to browse, along with fires for s’mores, photos with Santa, mulled cider and even a reindeer. 

Families in attendance could grab a punch card to visit all the attractions which also included a light maze and a trackless train. Once they completed all the attractions they could submit their punch card to be entered into the raffle for a variety of prizes. 

Another one of the stations was for writing letters to Santa, where the Kyle family stopped to make sure their kids knew what they wanted. 

“I like the small town vibes,” said Grace Kyle. “I thought it would be something memorable for the kids.”

Struckhoff was also pleased with the turnout and hoped it had helped to bring the community together.

“It’s great because most of these people around here all live in town, and they might be neighbors and not even know it,” said Struckhoff. “So this kind of stuff gets people out and about and meeting their neighbors and becoming a community.”