The Liberty County Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 14th annual Illuminated Christmas Parade on Dec. 10 in downtown Hinesville. The theme for this year’s parade was Christmas through the Decades. More than 80 floats, all covered in holiday lights, were entered, each paying tribute to a particular decade. The winners of the float competition are:

Business entries
• First place chamber of commerce award: GeoVista Credit Union
• Second place chamber of commerce award: Jackson Hewitt

Nonprofit entries
• First place mayor’s award: Pioneer Group/CenturyLink
• Second place mayor’s award: Hispanic Heritage Group

School entries
• First place school award: Liberty Elementary
• Second place school award: Snelson-Golden Middle

Church entries
• First place spirit award: Live Oak Church of God
• Second place spirit award: St. Stephen Catholic Church
Bands, floats, dancers, horses, community organizations, marching groups, beauty queens and Santa participated in the procession. Several thousand spectators from Liberty County and the surrounding communities lined the parade route, setting up lawn chairs and blankets to keep warm as they watched the parade go by.
The Christmas parade was sponsored by CenturyLink, Geo Vista Credit Union, the Hinesville Downtown Development Authority, Liberty Chrysler, McDonalds, Navy Federal Credit Union, SAI Hospitality, Savannah Tech, South GA Bank and The Heritage Bank.
WTOC taped the parade and will broadcast it at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18. The coverage also will be available on WTOC’s website soon. Anchor Dawn Baker, Kenny Fussell of Fussell Bonding and Carla Goodwin of Bank of America served as commentators.