AUBURN – The annual downtown Christmas pageant will get brighter this year, thanks to a parade of lights.

The city’s annual holiday celebration is scheduled for Monday. It extends the traditional Festival Plaza celebration out along Court Street.

“It seems like a neat idea, to have a downtown festival of lights – sort of a holiday electrical parade,” said Tracey Steuber, Auburn community relations manager.

The parade of lights begins at 6:15 p.m. Floats, carolers and other parade participants gathered the Auburn Police Station will cross Minot Avenue, will walk down Court Street and turn on to Main Street to Festival Plaza.

Court Street will be closed for the duration of the parade, and traffic to and from Lewiston will be diverted through Great Falls Plaza.

“If you’ve ever seen a parade of lights, you know it’s a spectacle,” she said. “It’s just amazing to see the floats decked out with lights and street lit up. It just creates a very different atmosphere.”

It’s a short route – about one-third of a mile – and Steuber said there’s a limited number of floats. So far 10 have signed up, including an Auburn school chorus float, city firetrucks and a sled designed and lit up by city public works.

She hopes it will catch on however, with more teams signing up to design floats next year.

“We’ll try to start a contest next year, too, with prizes for best school group or whatever,” she said. “This is just the start of it. We’re hoping people enjoy it, and it will continue to grow and continue.”

As many as 200 students from Auburn’s school chorus groups will march in the parade, following the school float. Scouting groups have also told Steuber they want to march, as well.

The rest of the celebration should be familiar, with carols, music, treats and the traditional Christmas tree lighting. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be on hand and there will be free hayrides and hot chocolate. There will be arts and crafts and a scavenger hunt before the parade, as well as a model train exhibition.