Call it good, dumb luck, but Saturday evening I happened to pick an excellent spot at Ninth and Main streets to watch and photograph Hopkinsville’s HES/EnergyNet Night Christmas Parade.
I realized this when I started chatting with Melissa Spurr and noticed she had a keen focus on the rise of Main Street a couple of blocks north near the courthouse. She was eager to see the float that Hopkinsville Water Environment Authority employees had built for the parade.
Spurr had an idea of the spectacle that would soon come into view, but she hadn’t yet seen it in this kind of nighttime setting with faux snow flying everywhere and more than a thousand people lining the parade route while Christmas carols and sirens echoed through downtown.
The anticipation was something to watch. Spurr was clearly more excited than her own children.
“There it is!” she shouted when the float came into view.
I looked up Main Street and saw a massive yellow glow in the shape of a house making its grand entrance. The house was a replica of the home in “Christmas Vacation,” and trailing it was another prop from the Chevy Chase movie — Uncle Eddie’s ramshackle RV.
I’m pretty sure I said, “Wow,” five or six times as the huge float came our way.
And as remarkable as the HWEA float was, I was even more taken with Spurr’s head-over-heels joy at seeing it. Her reaction made the night for me.
Spurr had reason to be proud. She is taking the lead role at HWEA at the end of the year when Derrick Watson retires.
It was a big night all around for the city water utility and its employees. HWEA’s float received the grand champion award from Hopkinsville Parks and Recreation. And Watson was the parade grand marshal.
To cap it off, I captured a photo of Spurr and Watson enjoying the moment after the grand marshal vehicle had reached the end of the parade route and he hustled back to Ninth and Main streets to revel in the evening.
And even though I still believe the parade would be greatly improved if all of the emergency vehicles and trucks suspended their sirens and horns, and played Christmas music instead (I will never give up on this wish) — the 2025 Christmas parade was one of the best ever.
You can see more photos I shot at the parade here.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
