Holiday glamor on the square

Exceptionally mild autumn weather, bright lights, a lighted Christmas parade, lots of food --- and the incredible level of organization involved in launching Chariton's annual DazzleFest --- all played their parts in attracting thousands to the square Friday evening.

This is one of the few times of the year when you can see, in these days of big-box stores, malls and online shopping, how an old-fashioned county seat square was designed to function.

The historical society window, at Hammer Medical Supply, featured "Historic Holiday Glam" for men and women from the society's costume collection --- and took home third place in its class. Thanks to Kathleen, Ann, Jim, Kylie, Karoline and Jewell for organizing the window and to Jim, Rex and Jerry for roasting the peanuts our "elves" gave away during the event. This is the second year we've been lucky enough to share space with Tim and Sandy Stroud of PC Repair Services, who serve up free chili and hot dogs.

Thanks, too, to our personal elf, who did her bit by putting the "live" in "live Christmas window."

The window at Cindy Lou's also caught my eye.

As did this one, at Blong Chiropractic.

And somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 costumed elves and costumed adult supervisors did their bits in pulling the whole thing off. It was a great evening!

Although the historical society costumes will come home to the museum on Monday, most of these window displays (minus the people) will remain in place throughout the holiday season, so be sure to take a look if you missed the fun on Friday.

DazzleFest is a project of Chariton Area Chamber/Main Street with Cindy Sellers as principal organizer.