PALMDALE CHRISTMAS PARADE TO LIGHT UP THE NIGHT.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

PALMDALE - After more than 40 years of drawing thousands of spectators to downtown Palmdale, Palmdale's Christmas parade is shifting to Fifth Street West - and will be held at night.

The 2001 Winter Odyssey Holiday Light Parade will feature illuminated floats, marching groups wearing battery-powered lights and other luminous entries.

``We wanted something different,'' said Jackie Snider, the Chamber of Commerce's chief executive officer. ``We wanted to add an event to the chamber and to the city that would be different, something that would be awe-inspiring and would put Palmdale on the map, that people would come to see.''

The parade will begin at 6 p.m. Dec. 8 at East Avenue Q and Fifth Street West. It will proceed north on Fifth Street West and end at Technology Drive.

Among the floats will be one by Valley Child Guidance Clinic, whose entry will carry close to 1,000 light bulbs on an infrastructure of PVC pipe. Twenty clinic employees and their children will ride on the float and walk beside it, handing out candy to children along the parade route.

`We're just trying to show a lot of light because we think there is too much darkness in their (children's) lives,'' explained Larry Caird, marketing manager.

``I've been to light parades, and I think they're wonderful,'' Caird added. ``If people come to this parade they're never going to forget it.''

Although the parade will be held in the evening, Snider said parade participants and spectators shouldn't worry much about the weather during the parade. Snider checked weather records for Dec. 8 over the last five years.

`It's actually 10 degrees warmer at 6 p.m. at night than it is at 8 a.m. in the morning,'' Snider said.

The parade is expected to be slightly smaller than its usual 125 entries.

``People are going to need to visually see the concept and then next year they will ... do it,'' Snider said. ``I think a lot of people don't like change. Our whole theme of the year is, 'Who moved our cheese?' We moved our cheese, and now we have to have people find it and go with it. I think as years go on, this will be an event to remember.''

Since the parade will take place on the day after the 60th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, chamber members are gathering Antelope Valley Pearl Harbor survivors to serve as grand marshals of the parade this year. Chamber officials believe there are 50 to 100 Pearl Harbor survivors living in the area.

In order to get ideas and information on how to do the parade, members of the chamber attended Calfest, a festival in Las Vegas. They have also been in touch with chamber members from Boise, Idaho, which puts on an annual light parade.

The parade route was moved because of the Palmdale Boulevard resurfacing work, which had been expected to last through December.

``We needed to move it off of Palmdale Boulevard because of that. This was the best location that we could think of,'' Snider said.

The new route is a quarter-mile shorter than the old route and offers some advantages. This first year there will be a special VIP bleacher section, and the chamber hopes to expand it to accommodate more spectators in coming years. Nonprofit vendors will also be able to sell hot chocolate and coffee.

This isn't the first change for the parade. In 1998, the parade route on Palmdale Boulevard was changed from eastbound to westbound, to end the parade at the new Poncitlan Square.

Due to complaints from boulevard businesses that had to close during the parade, there are no plans to return it to Palmdale Boulevard.

``We're going to try and keep it on Fifth Street West,'' Snider said.

The deadline to file applications for float entries is Friday.

Vendor entries will be accepted until Dec. 4.

Applications can be picked up at the Chamber of Commerce offices at 38260 10th St. E., Suite A, along with a parade kit that contains the parade waiver, rules and regulations, and guidelines on how to build a float. For more information, call the chamber at [phone].