{"id":15338,"date":"2025-12-06T18:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T01:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-bigger-show-of-floats-this-year-for-the-parade-of-lights-on-main-street-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:46:40","slug":"a-bigger-show-of-floats-this-year-for-the-parade-of-lights-on-main-street-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-bigger-show-of-floats-this-year-for-the-parade-of-lights-on-main-street-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"A bigger show of floats this year for the Parade of Lights on Main Street Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Parade of Lights began it\u2019s dazzling march down Cortez\u2019s Main Street Saturday night, featuring the theme \u201cBlessings of a Community\u201d in honor of this year\u2019s host, the Elks Lodge.<\/p>\n

Despite the cold, spectators were ready for the lights to warm their hearts. The community showed up in a dense crowd of observers along Cortez\u2019s main thoroughfare as a caravan of floats brimming with holiday delight inched along.<\/p>\n

Up from last year, 70 floats went down Main St. for 2025, competing in nonprofit, commercial and other categories, judged on music, lights, creativity, theme and workmanship. Last year\u2019s floats were numbered at 65 entries.<\/p>\n

Four Corners Board of Realtors, as in past years, organized the parade, now in its 36th year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Pinon Project's float during the Parade of Lights.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Montezuma-Cortez marching band performing during the Parade of Lights.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ute
Ute Mountain Ute Head Start's float in the Parade of Lights.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Elks Lodge float during the Parade of Lights.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Maxwell
Maxwell Development & Construction's float brought it's own blizzard to Main Street.(Matthew Tangeman\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThis is one of the best events of the year as far as bringing people out from the whole community,\u201d said Bruce Burkett, a pastor at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Cortez.<\/p>\n

Two new categories have been added: band and a people\u2019s choice award for floats. Spectators voted for the latter. Many were already setting up chairs and bundling in blankets an hour before the march began.<\/p>\n

Michelle Morris, a longtime organizer with the Four Corners Board of Realtors, said in past years, onlookers have said \u201cI wish so and so had won.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis way people can put in their two cents worth,\u201d she said of the new public voting opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd feel like they\u2019re a part of it instead of just having the judges choose,\u201d said Breezy Obletz-Kingery, Four Corners Board of Realtors president and host of the event\u2019s YouTube livestream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Floats displayed QR codes for voting on the people\u2019s choice slot.<\/p>\n

Judges for this year were:<\/p>\n

Jackie Cook (Vectra Bank)Nicci Crowley (LOR Foundation)Oma Fleming (Dolores County 4-H)Jim Muller (Kiwanis)Vicki Shaffer (Montezuma County Search and Rescue)<\/div>\n

\"Judges
Judges for the 2025 Parade of Lights: Jackie Cook (left), Oma Fleming, Jim Muller, Nicci Crowley, Vicki Shaffer. (Courtesy of Michelle Morris)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt was super fun,\u201d said Patrick Allen Jackson, who rode a Christmas light-covered bike and dressed up as \u2018DJ Santa,\u2019 wearing a gold chain and leopard print Christmas hat. \u201cIt seemed like there were more floats. It felt smoother overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson joined alongside FTI Wifi\u2019s float, a company who\u2019s speaker he helped set up. Jackson is a longtime DJ in the area.<\/p>\n

Lights, as can be expected, were everywhere. Christmas lights ensnared tractors and wrapped around hoods of cars and trucks. They illuminated from marching band instruments. In one instance, they were observed on a firefighter\u2019s helmet. In another, they were placed snugly around the body of a leashed dog.<\/p>\n

Santas Clauses waved. Reindeer antlers, snowmen, candy canes and Grinches appeared again and again, all while judges diligently watched from a raised platform set up on Market St.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Santa Clause-by-helicopter arrival was unable to take place, according to Morris.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor safety reasons (the helicopter company) decided to take only medical flights at this time time and couldn\u2019t do non-emergency flights,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great time for us to come together and celebrate the community,\u201d said Jacqlynn Miller, who works for Main Street Brewery and Restaurant and offered another hot chocolate stand. \u201cIf that includes handing out hot chocolate, then we\u2019ll do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kustom
Kustom Diesel Towing won first place in the Commercial category. (Matthew Tangeman\/Special too The Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Montezuma
Montezuma County 4H during the Parade of Lights.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Parade of Lights results<\/div>\n

Commercial category<\/strong><\/p>\n

First: Kustom Diesel Towing Second: R&B Oil Field Services, Inc.Third: Sunshine RidesHonorable mention: Maxwell Real Estate and Maxwell Development<\/div>\n

Nonprofit category<\/strong><\/p>\n

First: Lewis-Arriola PTOSecond: Cortez Area Youth Activity Center Third: Cortez BMX<\/div>\n

Other category<\/strong><\/p>\n

First: Battlerock SchoolSecond: Montezuma County 4-HThird: Ute Mountain Child Development Center <\/div>\n

Best band (new this year): <\/strong>Montezuma-Cortez High School Band<\/p>\n

People\u2019s choice award (new this year):<\/strong> Montezuma County 4-H<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judges said it was really awesome to see so many turnout, not just from Cortez, but from all over,\u201d said Morris.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the little cars, the Ute Mountain Ute princess one \u2013 they were just really impressed with all of it. They wish they could give a lot more prizes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was updated Monday morning to include a photo of the judges. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seventy entries present this year into Cortez\u2019s biggest holiday gathering<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20722,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15338\/revisions\/20722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15338"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}