‘Tis the season

BARRE — In what has become something of a Granite City tradition, downtown merchants will kick off the holiday shopping season with a parade and tree-lighting ceremony on Saturday.
The annual “Santa Parade” (led by guess who?) is set for Saturday at 5 p.m. The brief parade will proceed down North Main Street to City Hall Park where Santa is expected to light a soon-to-be-decorated tree in the gazebo.
In the run-up to the parade, members of the Barre Partnership have arranged for an afternoon of horse-drawn wagon rides for downtown shoppers between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.