With the Christmas shopping season approaching, the Ironton Lions Club is gearing up for a city tradition — the annual Christmas Parade.

This year the parade is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 26, starting at 6 p.m.

“We have a lot of young people participating this year,” Lou Pyles, organizer of the parade, said. “We will have high school bands and Yvonne DeKay’s dance studio. Bellefonte Hospital may do a float. They are always great to participate in our parade. Hopefully it will be a good parade. Hopefully there will be no rain.”

The theme this holiday is “Sleigh Bells Ringing,” and besides the dance students, there will be at least three high schools in the lineup.

Since 2003 the Lions Club has organized the annual parade with Pyles usually starting contacting participants in September. Before the Lions Club’s participation, the parade was the project of the Ironton Business Association.

As usual, the route will start at Railroad Street going to Second Street to Washington Street, back down Third Street to Center Street. About 45 minutes before the parade starts Santa Claus will be stationed at Railroad Street to take the shopping list of all youngsters who wish to let the jolly man what they want under their Christmas tree.

“The parade is only an hour long but we try to bring Christmas to our community,” Pyles said. “We try to put people in the spirit. The main thing is we do this for the children in the community. They love to see Santa. They love everything about Christmas.”