Rocky Hill Christmas Parade

If you make only one Christmas Parade in 2025, go for the one in Rocky Hill. The 11th annual version will be Saturday, December 6, from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The festival will begin at 3:30 p.m. with a Christmas-themed market in the Rocky Hill Center parking lot (7513 S Northshore Dr, Knoxville). Local food trucks will offer warm drinks, snacks and treats! Live music and interactive storytelling will be underway on the festival stage. After the parade, there will be a tree lighting by Santa Claus himself. This festival/parade has its own website, a Facebook page and is on Instagram.

Knoxville’s Cindy Bradley wins national prize

Cindy Bradley, owner/broker of Signature Homes in Knoxville, is one of five winners in the 2025 Good Neighbor Award sponsored by the National Association of Realtors. She was nominated by the East Tennessee Realtors with support from the state association. Each of five winners received $10,000 for their charity.

Cindy continues to work in real estate, but she also is the founder of Sacred Ground Hospice House on Dry Gap Pike. “Through her work, Cindy creates comfort, dignity and peace for individuals and families during life’s most sacred moments,” read the nomination.

Broadacres collects coats and more

Broadacres (Powell) Neighborhood Association collected over 150 warm clothing items that were delivered to Care Cuts just ahead of this week’s cold weather. Pictured at the collection are Margaret Massey-Cox, Jerry Sluder and Issac Merkle.

Meet Carl Nichols: He knows New Tazewell

Carl Nichols

An old acquaintance, Carl Nichols, popped up on my Facebook page with an open letter to citizens of New Tazewell, Tennessee. (New Tazewell and original Tazewell are pretty much side-by-side towns in Claiborne County. Like Baptist churches, one split from the other.)

Carl’s “Great News!” is that the city of New Tazewell won the tax auction bid for “the downtown oil company property.” A call to Carl didn’t generate a response yet. He probably didn’t recognize the number. So, I don’t know any more about this property than just that.

He added: “We have already completed a phase I environmental study. We have ordered a Phase II study. A representative of the TN EPA attended our workshop meeting Tuesday evening. She informed us that if we owned the property, we would be eligible for up to $500,000 in grant money to convert the property to a city parking lot.

“The land to the left is the location of our new city hall. We hope to break ground in April. The former Payne Motor Company property to the right, we have an entrepreneur hoping to purchase this property and build a nice family restaurant similar to the Woodlake Golf Course Restaurant.

“People, our dream of downtown revitalization is well on its way to becoming reality. I’m so excited of the possibilities … it’s overwhelming.”

New Tazewell  officials are: Mayor Stan Leonard and aldermen Dr. Charles DeBusk, Franklin Essary, Nita Louthan, Jeff Lewis, Wes Frazier and (of course) Carl Nichols.

Notes & Quotes

Big Kahuna Labor Day Festival presented proceeds totaling more than $55,000 to two main beneficiaries: Thompson Cancer Survival Center and The Educator Resource Center. The presentation was November 6, 2025.

Pizza Hoss in Powell served 200 families a free pizza as part of a local restaurant initiative to cover families cut off from food stamps (SNAP) during the government shutdown. The Hoss gives away a large pizza and knots each Thursday to those in need who show a SNAP card. Walk-in only.

Skip the mall and go small. Check the 2025 Maker City Holiday Gift Guide here, an online collection of locally made gifts, art and experiences. More than 40 Knoxville-area makers are represented.

Marti Baker from Care Cuts will speak Wednesday (11/12/25) to the Fountain City BPA at noon at the Fountain City Lions Club building. Catered lunch is $15.

Quote: You really want to spend three hours making that fancy recipe with goose and lamb? No, no, no. Take the navy beans and chop up some wieners and put in ketchup with Worcestershire and maybe some onion soup mix for flavor, and you’ve got it. It’s good enough.” Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon 1956