Special appearances by a pair of United States Olympic medalists and the Wells Fargo Stagecoach highlight the lineup for Gatlinburg’s 33rd annual Fantasy of Lights Christmas Parade on December 5.

The City of Gatlinburg invites you to bundle up and generate a spirited dose of holiday cheer at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 5 in Downtown, with more than 100 parade entries including marching bands and giant helium balloons taking to the streets.

Abbott, the former University of Tennessee southpaw pitcher, played a large role in the success of the USA’s silver medal-winning softball team at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Stone, a resident of Kodak and veteran of the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry, is a Paralympic archer who was a member of the first American team to ever win a medal for archery, capturing bronze at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece.

The Wells Fargo Stagecoach is a living symbol of the Old West. Built high and wide to handle the rough, rutted roads of a new country, the design of a classic American vehicle was perfected in Concord, N.H. Carriage builder J. Stephens Abbot and master wheelwright Lewis Downing built the famed stagecoaches which weighed about 2,500 pounds and cost $1,100 each, including leather and damask cloth interior.

The Wells, Fargo & Company’s Express office opened in Memphis in 1899. The stage route covered a total of 2,757 miles. Day and night, the stagecoach rolled on at 5 to 12 miles per hour across vast, treeless plains, jagged mountain passes, scorching deserts and rivers cursed with quicksand. The coach stopped only to change horses or let passengers slug down a cup of coffee with their beef jerky and biscuits. It took 25 days to travel from St. Louis to San Francisco.

In addition, the parade will include a band of SMART Cars. SMART is an acronym for "Swatch Mercedes Art." Each car measures only 81/2 ft x 5 feet and weighs 1,800 pounds. They are gas-powered but get 45 to 50 miles per gallon and are 95% recyclable. It is the only car in production that is also found in the Museum of Art in New York. It also boasts a 4 star crash test rating.
No less than 10 marching bands are scheduled to participate, with appearances by Miss Cherokee from the Qualla Indian Reservation in Cherokee, N.C., and the Polar Express Train Caboose from Alabama, as well as "Little Joe," the World’s Tiniest Trick Horse standing 17 inches high at 50 pounds.

Santa’s Autograph Party cranks up at 6 p.m. at Riverbend Mall, in the midst of a main viewing area for the Parade at Traffic Light #3 in front of the Gatlinburg Welcome Center. The parade begins at Traffic Light #1A on Hwy 321 and ends about an hour-and-a-half later at Traffic Light #10.

Pre-parade performances by Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre, Ginger Brown’s Academy of Performing Arts, Elizabeth Williams Dance Academy, and the Winter Tunes & Tales Carolers are also planned.

Jamming sidewalks and balconies along the parade route, a crowd in excess of 70,000 people is expected to soak up the illuminating festivities during this third phase of Gatlinburg Winter Magic, the City of Gatlinburg’s popular holiday lights program which has received a $1.5 million injection of new displays plus a 100-percent conversion to energy-efficient LED bulbs over the past three years.

The parade telecast will be rebroadcast on Charter Cable channel 16 in Sevier, Blount, Monroe, Loudon, Jefferson, Cocke and Hamblen counties as well as Farragut at 9 p.m. on December 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, & 21.

Information courtesy of Gatlinburg.com