THE DAILY LEADER / JUSTIN VICORY / Gage Querns and Michael Daniels put the final touches on this year’s Santa sleigh at the Brookhaven Technical Center Wednesday afternoon. The Christmas parade will start at 7 p.m. tonight.

Despite rain in the forecast, the Brookhaven Christmas Parade is still set to begin tonight at 7 p.m.

Parade committee chairman Celine Craig said floats will line up between 3 and 5 p.m. at the Exchange Club Park Circle.

Floats will have an initial judging at 5:30 p.m. The volunteer fire brigade will play at 6:50 to open the parade, which starts at 7 p.m.

Detective Rob Smith with the Brookhaven Police Department said all of the downtown area streets will shut down about an hour prior to the parade.

The parade route meanders through downtown Brookhaven, starting at Jackson and Cherokee streets, heading east on Cherokee. It will then turn north on Railroad Avenue, east again onto Cherokee, north on First Street, west on Monticello and then disperse near the Mississippi School of the Arts.

Smith said Cherokee may be shut down earlier and a small part of Monticello that runs behind the movie theater, down past the Donut Palace, will also be shut down early.

“There will be police officers at every intersection,” Smith said. “We will have several officers on duty for traffic control.

“We ask for everybody in the downtown area to not have their cars parked downtown to allow for people to line up along the parade route,” Smith added.

Smith said officers will be out making sure everyone is safe.

“Families should be careful,” he said, “because floats will be tossing candy and other items and we don’t want small children getting in too close to the floats.”

Smith said he and the other officers want to ensure everyone has a good time.

“A lot of people put in a lot of hard work,” he said, “and, we want everyone to be very careful because it will be a good time for fun and fellowship – a great outing for the kids.”

Smith also asked that parade goers please use discretion with parking, even though they will not be strictly enforcing the usual parking laws.

“Please don’t block driveways and fire hydrants – just use a little common sense and some common courtesy,” he said.

Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Garrick Combs said the parade is staying on schedule despite the sketchy weather reports.

“Unless dangerous conditions occur we are going forward with the parade as scheduled,” he said.