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Youngstown's holiday festivities remind many of yesteryear
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown Holiday Parade
Gallery
It didn’t take much to get sisters Korie and Cassi Samios of Brookfield to jump up and down in unison and utter joy: A mere flick of a switch did the trick.
“I thought it was beautiful,” said an excited Korie, 5, in describing her reaction to seeing the colorful lights covering the 40-foot spruce Christmas tree in Central Square come on, a move some say officially kicks off the holiday season in the city.
Sharing in her sister’s euphoria was Cassi, 7, who momentarily seemed at a loss for words when asked what it was like to see the large tree transformed into a panorama of lights.
“It’s cool,” she said simply.
Cassi and Korie, along with their mother, Lauren Samios, and grandmother Mala Salata of Poland, were among an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people who attended Friday evening’s annual Youngstown Holiday Parade & Tree Lighting ceremony on Central Square.
Main sponsors were the city of Youngstown, Home Savings Bank and Youngstown CityScape.
The tree is to remain in place for the duration of the holiday season.
The parade, which began near East Federal and Champion streets and ended on West Federal Street at Symphony Place, featured 56 floats and 11 area and regional high-school marching bands. It was said to be the largest since the family-oriented holiday-themed ceremony began, according to event organizers.
Other entries included the Paula and Anthony Rich Center for Autism, Ballet Western Reserve and Eastern Gateway Community College, along with the YMCA and YWCA of Youngstown.
In addition to seeing for the first time the tree come alive with lights, Korie and Cassi were excited to have waved to Santa Claus, who was available afterward for photographs, and to go home with an abundance of candy, courtesy of the parade. They also said roller skates and a stuffed animal are their most desired gifts.
For their mother, the tree-lighting ceremony was a symbol of what she sees as a continually growing and thriving downtown corridor.
“It’s nice to see everybody downtown and also enjoying the businesses,” she said. “It’s nice to bring the kids downtown and feel safe.”
For Salata, Friday’s huge gathering brought back fond memories of when she shopped at the former Strouss’ department store, a longtime downtown fixture, and enjoyed meals at its glass-enclosed corner lunch counter and malts, served in small clear glasses with tiny silver spoons, under the stairs in the six-floor store’s basement.
“I saw the parade come through and the snow come down,” she remembered.
The downtown corridor has seen its share of hard times, but for Salata, Friday’s parade more closely embodied the spirit of the downtown Youngstown of yesteryear, partly because the event attracted the sizeable crowd reminiscent of those in years when the Mahoning Valley was thriving.
“It’s getting better every time we come down here,” she said, adding that Christmas will be spent with family and friends at her daughter ‘s home.
The parade and ceremony capped off a series of activities that included a Spruce Holiday Pop-Up Shop, as well as free admission to the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center and OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology.