THANK YOU from the HAHS to Volunteers of 22nd Belsnickel Parade & Festival

By: Dylan Bowman, HAHS Board Member

December 10, 2025

HAHS volunteers make a third batch of hot chocolate. Photograph by Dylan Bowman.

To Those in the Trenches

The 22nd Annual Belsnickel Parade & Festival was a massive success. But it would never have even got off the ground without the volunteers and many other helping hands that made everything move like clockwork.

Making hot chocolate (over and over and over again). Parking cars in the cold. Directing traffic. Participating in the parade. Selling merchandise. Being a parade judge. Serving coffee. Running to the store for supplies. Helping set everything up. Take everything down. Tending the bonfire. Helping kids make s'mores. Painting faces. Making crafts. Even those who helped in the last-minute break-down and carrying of boxes and signage back to the Society building. You know who you are, and so do we.

Without YOU, this extensive community festival never would have been possible, and though it sounds cliché, it is the greatest truth in hindsight of an event like this. Like I said last year, some digital message sent your way in a snow squall with a disembodied voice telling you "YOU MADE HISTORY" probably doesn't make you believe it. You may may not feel like you did. Most people don't, and that's why they don't care about history or get involved in their community in the general sense. But here's how I view it...

History...REAL history...is made, yes by the large things. Nations. Kings and Queens and Presidents. Wars. Walls falling, laws being made, people dying and being born. But I believe with every fiber of my being it is in the smallest of things as well. A helping hand. A child's storybook being read. A really good bowl of stew on a cold day. And yes, a parade and festival in one, small Pennsylvania town. It is in the passion of the collective community that such amazing things are able to happen. This is what community is really about. When we all work together, we can make history.

Looking to get involved and be in the front lines of the next step to write in the history books? Reach out to us at halifax.pa.history@gmail.com or visit our Contact Us page for more information. We can't wait to work with you next year!

HAHS and community volunteers making the wheels turn at the 22nd Annual Belsnickel Parade & Festival. Photograph by Dylan Bowman.