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Laura Still, who plays the sweet-faced seraph in Church Street United methodist’s Annual Live Nativity, gives us a look at Christmas in Knoxville from, well, an angel’s perspective.

Maybe you won’t believe it, but I’m an angel. Only part-time right now, but during a certain season of the year, I grow wings. When it begins, I’m always surprised. Taking my usual route up the hill on Summit, I’ll see the city work crews bejeweling the trees in the median with mesh stockings of light, and think “Oh! It’s here.” My heart lifts, my shoulders itch, and almost before I can park the car, my pinions unfurl and I’m airborne, if only for a few weeks in December, watching Knoxville get ready for the holidays.

Low-altitude flying is a bit tricky when you’re not used to it, so don’t try this on your own. Just imagine you are along for the ride as I cruise over Knoxville, watching the city become engorged with incandescence. The pole banners go up on Gay Street and a forest of fluorescent conifers springs to life on top of tall buildings. On Market Square, businesses and restaurants glitter and glow as small tents and booths of the Holiday Market surround the big top of the Holidays On Ice skating rink. Krutch Park is a miniature forest of fairy-lit trees. The festive radiance extends outward from downtown to historic districts for the Blount Mansion Open House, Candlelight Tours of Ramsey House Plantation, and the Old North Home Tour. More distant points of the compass are part of the same constellation: Chilhowee Park, Bearden, Halls and Island Home sparkle with all colors of the rainbow.

Circling back to the river, we can float over Riverfront Park in time to hear the conductor call “All aboard!” on the Christmas Express. The sound of a train whistle is less lonesome when the Three Rivers Rambler blazes along its merry route, filled with celebrants enjoying refreshments while waiting for Santa to board with his bag of gifts. The 90-minute ride departs from Volunteer Landing and chugs over the river and through the woods to Marbledale Quarry before returning, an 11-mile round trip. Swooping up to Gay Street, we can see crowds packed along the sidewalks for the Santa Claus Parade, which falls on Dec. 4 this year. If we find a clear landing spot near the Downtown Grill and Brewery patio, we can view the spectacle with urbanite Michael Haynes. Michael says the parade is a true hometown experience. Never mind which celebrity the sponsors have brought in for the Grand Marshall, Knoxville still has an authentic small town feel on parade night. People come to shout and clap for their favorite high school bands, wave to tap dancing and cheerleading students, horseback riders, or antique car clubs. On all the floats the participants could be people you know, whether they are city council members, firefighters, or random guys wearing reindeer antlers in the back of pickup trucks.

After the parade, I’ll be going to ground, specifically the lower floor of Church Street United Methodist Church, to help set up Walk Through Bethlehem, the best free Christmas pageant ever, because it lets everyone come inside and be part of the story. Every December over 100 volunteers work to set the clock back 2000 years and create the town of Bethlehem on the night of Christ’s birth. Ceiling, walls and windows are covered in black to eliminate outside light, then an uncounted number of light strings are untangled and hung against the darkness like tiny stars. Light strings are wound around the poles of the shops while wood chips are hauled in by wheelbarrow and shoveled onto the floor. Trees are planted and ivy trails along the walls. Meanwhile, chairs are moved into the room that will be converted into a synagogue, complete with an actual rabbi reading from the Talmud. Outside a rough shepherd’s shelter is constructed just under the star suspended from the bell tower. Shops are furnished and supplies brought in for the carpenter, the basket weaver, the potter, the apothecary, the leather worker, the metalsmith, jeweler and cloth dyer. The spice shop scents the air and grape vines appear at the winery. On Sunday Dec. 13 at 1 p.m., the census taker will be seated just inside the gate, the shopkeepers on duty, Roman soldiers patrolling the streets, and the shepherds tending their flocks while keeping an eye on camels left outside the village gates by three richly dressed strangers bearing gifts. I usually arrive incognito so I can stroll over to the food shop for a snack, listen to a tale at the storyteller’s tent, watch kids making bracelets at the jewelry table, or chat with a Wise Man. We are almost always interrupted by a small child tugging at his sleeve to say, “I found it! I’ll show you that baby you’re looking for!” So we work our way through the crowd to the inn, where the innkeeper is informing wayfarers that they can’t stay the night because there’s no room to be had at any price, and go around back to the stable where a young mother cradles her newborn infant. It’s time for me to do the job I was sent for, so I vanish and reappear in winged form outside on the shepherd’s shelter. I announce the birth to the shepherds and settle down to watch over the people for the rest of the night. It is odd how many adults walk right past and don’t see me. Children almost always do. Either they are used to looking up because they are small, or they believe in me before they see me and expect me to be there. The vigil can be chilly but it’s never lonely. Children smile at me, wave, blow kisses, and a few even call out “Good-bye, angel! I love you!” as they leave. When the church bells toll six, I’m free to fly away, tired but full of joy.

My job may be done, but Christmas isn’t over. I’m sticking around for the Tour de Lights. This year on Dec. 16, as many as 200 cyclists will converge on Krutch Park, bicycles bedecked in twinkling lights in addition to the usual safety lamps fore and aft. Some wear a simple Santa cap over the required helmet, others go full throttle with beard, fur-trimmed suit and boots or paint faces green for the Grinch (don’t get in front of him, he’s a mean one). The ride is organized by Kelly Segars, Bicycle Program Coordinator. Kelly loves the creativity and effort riders put into their costumes and bike decorations. Tandem cyclists have dressed as Santa and Rudolph while others tow toy-filled ‘sleds’ or cabooses puffing dry ice smoke. The Snow Queen, the Sugarplum Fairy, Scrooge and Marley’s Ghost are possible attendees. This year the route begins at the park and then heads south over the river to tour illuminated streets of Island Home before returning downtown, a distance of about six miles. It ends where it began, at the park, where riders are rewarded with hot chocolate provided by Mast General Store and prizes are presented for best costume and bike decoration. No wonder Bicycle Magazine has picked this year’s Tour de Lights as December’s Cool Ride of the Month.

After the bike tour, I’ll do some hovering over the Market Square Holiday Market, where vendors will be selling locally produced crafts. There will be woodworking, glass, jewelry, clothing and more. It’s a great place to find a unique gift and pick up a sprig of mistletoe for your sweetheart. If you don’t have a sweetheart, you can use it to find one. Nothing says “available” like a sprig of mistletoe in your hair. Holiday Market is a great place to meet friends and family and absorb the sounds and sights of the season. Buy a cup of hot chocolate or cider to sip as you amble around. You may see firefighters supervising a marshmallow roast, sidewalk musicians playing carols, or the big man in red, Santa himself, encouraging ice skaters with word and gesture at the Holidays On Ice skating rink. The market stays open every weekend from Thanksgiving till Christmas, rain or shine.

Before you leave, duck into one of the locally-owned merchants on the Square and ask for a First Night button. The buttons will admit you to any venue at Knoxville’s family-friendly New Year’s Eve celebration, First Night Knoxville. You can visit the Pick Stage at the Visitors Center for the best of Americana music, the TVA West Tower for Laugh comedy, or catch an all-female act in the Y-Not Lounge at the YWCA . Returning artists for the event include singer Sara Schwabe, the improv comedy group Einstein Simplified, and metal sculptor Preston Farabow. The East Tennessee History Center will again host the Children’s Festival from 3 p.m. till 7 p.m. Early countdown and fireworks for the youngsters will be at 9 p.m. Evening entertainment kicks off at 7 p.m. and ends with the ball drop and countdown on the Market Square Stage at midnight. Buttons can be purchased for $10 through Dec. 30, $15 at the event itself. Kids 6 and under get in free!

The week before Christmas, there are other ways to celebrate that I haven’t mentioned: the annual Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Clayton Holiday Concert, the Living Christmas Tree at Thompson Boling Arena, or Breakfast With Santa at the Knoxville Zoo. Or wander over to the Knoxville Museum of Art, where admission is always free. The featured exhibit for December is Devorah Sperber’s Threads of Perception. You might decide to make a reservation for the New Year’s Eve gala, featuring Teeny Tucker and Slow Blind Hill, before you leave. From there, it’s a short stroll through the park to the Sunsphere to take the elevator to the Observation Deck and look for flying reindeer. You’ll be getting the angels-eye view gratis without ruffling your feathers.

On Christmas Eve the civic festivities scale down but private celebrations continue. Families attend candlelight services at the church of their choice and friends meet at local restaurants and bars. Neighbors open their homes to share a meal and observe their own particular rituals of the night, whatever they are. I try to do one last flyover of downtown around 10 p.m., in time to watch a small group of carolers leave a loft on Market Square and sing their way over to the Pembroke on Union Avenue. Not all of them sing like angels, but they’ve been doing it long enough to qualify as a tradition, and they are happy to be together. The glow of good fellowship from this small group of revelers is enough to send me soaring straight up far above the highest of the city’s skyscrapers for a last look at the scintillating splendor of Knoxville, where Christmas is truly the Season of Light.

Photography by Gary Heatherly