Annual events bring out crowds to celebrate.
Plant City kicked off the Christmas season with its two signature events. On December 4, hundreds of people filled McCall Park for the 27th annual Lights of Love Tree Lighting Ceremony. Santa and Mrs. Claus threw the switch to turn on lights placed throughout town by the City of Plant City. Individuals, families, and businesses sponsored lights to decorate a 25-foot Christmas tree. The proceeds benefited South Florida Baptist Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
This year, the city’s General Services Department put 1,600 man-hours into Christmas decorations. They will have spent 1,000 hours from the end of October through the end of January putting everything up, keeping it all working, then taking them down and storing them until next year. “The other 600 hours are spent throughout the year either building new displays or repairing and upgrading the existing ones,” Facilities Manager Jim Rini said. “Much like Santa’s elves, our work never stops!”
December 5 saw thousands fill the sidewalks of downtown Plant City for the annual Christmas Parade. This year, onlookers even saw it “snowing.” During 2025, 50 volunteers contributed a labor of love to make the 2025 Christmas Parade a high-end event residents enjoyed. Ten parade committee members met bi-monthly until June, then they began meeting monthly to plan and coordinate the event. This year, 27 parade marshals organized and confirmed the entries, and coordinated the route on parade day. There were 75 competition entry parade units, plus 25 government units.
“Our idea was to make a simple snow, winter-wonderland type of look,” Michal Pippin, Pastor of the Plant City campus of the Crossing Church, said about their float. “But our main goal is to give away some bikes to some kids for Christmas. We also have an electric scooter we give away every year. One of the ways we do that is people text a keyword, and there is a QR code they can scan to enter to win. The week of December 8, the church will draw the names of winners. We want to make it an exciting, interactive experience.”
Sharon Moody, President of Plant City Christmas Parade, Inc., has led the event for well over a dozen years. When asked about how much time the volunteers put in, she said. “It is crazy,” she said. “There is a lot of preparation, and I really haven’t kept up with the time or hours per person, but it is a lot.” One of the things the parade volunteers had to handle was working a new parade route and informing the community. “I thought the parade itself was the best one for me. You could tell that the different businesses and churches put a lot of work into their floats. They were awesome to see. I know it took them a lot of time.”
The parade volunteers weren’t the only ones who put in blood, sweat, and toil. The float builders went all out. According to George Meyer, Student Pastor for the First Baptist Church of Dover, four people put in a total of 40 hours of work on their float. “Coming up December 20, we have a program called Carnival,” he said. “It is a Christmas theme for kids. We also have our Christmas at Dover, which is our Christmas musical. We give that information out to the community so they can enjoy something great for the community. We do this to get the word out.”
“We are here in Plant City,” Anthraj Michael, co-founder of All United Auto. “We serve our community, and it is important to us to be a part of this Plant City parade. We have 10 different nationalities working with us, and we are all about the community and togetherness. We have a world that we built. That is a six-foot beach ball that we put together and painted. You will see it rotates. That was a lot of engineering work to do that. Our theme is joy to the world.”
“I work at Faith Christian Academy,” Justin Randolph said. “I built the floats with 10 to 12 students and the Parent Teacher Organization.” The float theme was ‘Twas the Night before Christmas, and it displayed a woman sitting in a rocking chair reading the Christmas Story to children.
The winning parade units were:
Best Marching Unit
Plant City High School
Best School Entry
Strawberry Crest Marching Band
Best Church Entry
First Baptist Church Dover
Best Business Entry
Dukes Brewhouse/1916 Irish Pub
Best Overall
Wades Tree Service
Among the sponsors for the parade were Stingray Chevrolet, Unity in the Community, Brewington’s Towing and Recovery, The Florida Strawberry Festival, Haught Funeral Homes, the Robert W. Willaford Railroad Museum, Staples, Weatherington’s Tractor Service, and Winn-Dixie.
