Five Hills royalty prepare for holiday parade season
Special to Leader-Press
Christmas in our Hometown, Junk the Halls, Santa’s Winter Camp, and 12 Days of Christmas are just some of the different holiday parade themes that the Copperas Cove Five Hills royalty are preparing for with the arrival of the December.
The Copperas Cove Five Hills royalty represent the City of Copperas Cove at more than a dozen parades throughout the year in which the titleholders usually wear pageant attire with the queens in long gowns and the kings in formal suits. But, each holiday parade requires designing scenery, costumes, music and more to adhere to the designated theme.
Five Hills Ambassador Briana Liles is excited about the upcoming holiday parades and the changes that they bring.
“We get to ditch our typical pageant dresses and dress up to different themes. To fit our themes we are going country and wearing items made from recycled outfits to fit a junk theme, but I am most excited for the 12 days of Christmas. We get to do some painting for the decorations for the float which also include lots of glitter.”
Preteen Miss Five Hills Kaydence Roberts is “super excited” to participate in the City of Temple’s parade for which the theme is the 12 Days of Christmas. The royalty will arrive in gift boxes on the float and randomly represent the symbol for each day as described in the famous Christmas carol.
“I love the parades and all the difference themes that we get to decorate the float for, especially during Christmas as most of them are at night and you get to see them all lit up,” Roberts said. “My favorite is the Copperas Cove Christmas parade this year. It’s going to be really fun since this is the first time it’s being done at night.”
Most nighttime parades require a minimum of 300 lights per float. The city float rolls in each evening parade with more than 1,000 lights.
Junior Miss Five Hills Hayley Sawyer has been practicing her roles involved in the various parade themes and is counting the minutes until the parade dates are here.
“There are so many exciting new themes this year and I’ve really loved every minute of the planning, including a really, really fun rehearsal,” Sawyer said. “Planning, painting and decorating my gift box for our 12 Days of Christmas theme has been so much fun. We are even getting our recycled materials dresses ready for one of the Christmas parades and I can’t wait to see how everything all comes together. This is going to be the best Christmas season ever.”
The City will be represented in the Temple Christmas Parade on Dec. 2, Salado Christmas Parade on Dec. 5, Copperas Cove Christmas Parade on Dec. 7, Gatesville Christmas Parade and Killeen Christmas Parade both on Dec. 14.
“I really enjoy the parades. They are like the reward for all the royalty’s hard work because they are so much fun,” Liles said. “I always hope the Five Hills float wins so Cove can be proud of all we do to represent our city.”