By NATHANIEL WEATHERSBY

DAILY LEADER Staff Writer

This year’s Christmas parade is entitled “Bringing It Home For Christmas” and the family-fun begins at 7 p.m. Thursday evening.

Kay Burton, program director at the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce, reports approximately 35 floats will appear in Thursday night’s line-up.

Burton said she is excited to see what the winner of last year’s float contest, the Hurst Review, comes up with this year.

“They’re always creative and imaginative,” she said.

Tafv Stallings, director of Kids “R” Us Learning Center, said the center will be participating in the parade for its third year this year. Stallings said Kids “R” Us won a plaque in 2011 for School Category Winner.

“We want to let the children enjoy the parade, show that we are creative too and represent Kids “R” Us,” Stallings said.

She said this year there will be about 30 children involved with the float.

Emily Waterloo has children involved with Brookhaven Little Theatre and volunteered to help with the theatre’s float. Two of her children will be in the theatre’s spring production of “Annie,” and Waterloo said that the float will feature a performance by some of the girls from the show. The girls will perform “Hard Knock Life” from the show with choreography by Taylor Berry.

Waterloo said she and the kids have been working on a trailer in her garage to make “to make the float transform into an orphanage.”

“They love to watch it, and they love to be in it, so it’s a win-win either way,” Waterloo said.

The planning for the parade started in the summer, but it really kicked off around October, according to Celine Craig, parade chairman.

“It’s going to be a beautiful night,” Craig said.

Craig also said the planning committee encourages parents to keep children back and away from the floats during the parade, so they can safely enjoy the festivities.

The parade is planned to start at the corner of Jackson and Cherokee Street and will end around the Episcopal Church.