Tyner, PARA Announce Free Christmas Movie Event At Jaycee Park

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — City of Tuscaloosa officials continue to push forward despite the cancellation of the 2020 West Alabama Christmas Parade, in the hopes of still providing some holiday cheer to the public at a time when it's sorely needed.

District 5 Councilman Kip Tyner and officials from the Tuscaloosa County Park & Recreation Authority (PARA) held a press conference at Jaycee Park Monday afternoon to announce Holly Jolly in the Park on Dec. 11. The event will feature socially-distant photo opportunities with Santa, food trucks and a screening of 2018's "The Grinch."

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"This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a quite a while," Tyner said. "To provide a free movie to not only the residents of Alberta and District 5, but this is for the entire city and county. This is for everyone."

Holly Jolly In The Park will kick off at 6 p.m., beginning with Selfies with Santa, which will run until 7 p.m. ahead of the beginning of the movie.

Tyner said the movie will be a drive-in format and free to the public.

"The movie theaters have been closed down for some time and I think just reopened again recently, but this is a place you would be able to come and easily socially distance," he said.

PARA spokeswoman Becky Booker said attendees will be asked to enter the park via Kicker Road and a map will be posted on PARA's website prior to the event.

"The screen will be set up on the other side of the pavilion and Santa will be over closer to the tennis facility," she said. "So we’ll have socially-distant parking and lawn space in the front as well, so if people want to come out and bring chairs and blankets."

Both Tyner and Booker lamented the cancellation of the 45th installment of the West Alabama Christmas Parade — an event that normally brings more than 15,000 people to downtown Tuscaloosa. While the parade was initially changed to a "reverse" format, which would have seen the floats remain stationary while attendees drove by instead, PARA previously said it did not get the level of participation it would have liked to have seen to make the event worthwhile.

"This will be as close to that as possible," Tyner said, offering the free movie night as an alternative. "The beauty of this is this is a free gift not only to residents in the Alberta area but community-wide."

Tyner then added that city officials are in the preliminary stages of building a new teen center for the Boys and Girls Clubs of West Alabama, saying the nonprofit is losing participants once they enter their teenage years, due to a lack of age-appropriate offerings.

"We’ve been in more than just talks," Tyner said. "It's really come close to hopefully an announcement that would be a teen center with a full basketball court and all for the teens in this area, because there’s not anything like it out here for them."

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