Mines Invites Community to Annual Holiday Parade of Trees

Community members are invited to vote on their favorite displays at the annual South Dakota Mines holiday Parade of Trees from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 4 – 5, and 9 a.m. - 12 p.m., Friday, Dec. 6 in the Surbeck Center Beck Ballroom. This year, the theme is Nightmare Before Christmas and features displays created by the campus community.

Each year, participants strive to have the best display of the year. The public vote will distinguish which team wins the People's Choice Award. The winners of each category will be announced on Friday after the voting has closed. A judging panel determines the other awards, which include Best Lighting, Best Representation of Organization/Department, Best Theme Fit and Most Unique.

The Office of Student Engagement at Mines sponsors the Parade of Trees. The displays, all created by a campus organization or department, range from a Fabric of Counseling featuring Sally from the university’s counseling center and a Christmas Town from the physics department to an Oogie Boogie & Bright display from the nanoscience and biomedical engineering department.

Each year, the campus community votes on the Parade of Trees theme.

 “A vote goes out in October to pick from the top 15 entries made by the Mines community,” said Chris Pappas, student engagement coordinator. “This year, we had 326 individuals vote.” Past themes have been Anything But a Tree, Myths & Legends and Harry Potter.