Brownsville celebrates the holidays in a pandemic friendly way

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. — One city celebrated the holidays in a new, socially distant way.

The City of Brownsville started a new tradition because of COVID-19, and officials plan to keep that going for years to come.

“In these challenging times, you have to pivot,” said Brownsville Mayor Bill Rawls.

Because of COVID-19, the city had to cancel its annual Christmas parade. In its place, officials presented a holiday light tour throughout the month of December.

More than 30 locations throughout the area lit up in spirit for the holiday season.

“When your community steps up and has ownership and is in the game, it just makes it fun,” Mayor Rawls said.

The anchor of the light tour was the Markowski Christmas Lights, well known for extraordinary light displays every year. This year, the family even got national attention.

“They’ve been doing this as a community event every year. This year, they were on The Great Christmas Light Fight, and it got national recognition for it. So, we’ve seen some tourism increase because of their presence on the show,” Mayor Rawls said.

“We’ve had them come from Nashville. I’ve had them come from down in Alabama, Mississippi, and all over. People saw us on the show, and came in. To me, that’s one of the neatest things ever,” said David Markowski, who participated in the light tour.

The light tour ends December 30.