Photo credit: Savannah Cole

A highlight of Athens' holiday season, the Downtown Parade of Lights returned Thursday, Dec. 6, featuring an impressive selection of festive floats (though, sadly, Rotisserie Jesus was nowhere to be found). 

A few floats featured live music, but the undoubted highlight of those was put together by local Americana group Joe Willey and the Movin' Men, who used the opportunity to spread holiday cheer with a side of hippie charm.

Willey has put together a video of the group's mobile performance, featuring footage shot by Chris Carson and Joe Lavine.

"The float theme is 'A Haight Ashbury Christmas' to fit with the 'Christmas Around the World' parade theme," says Willey. "The float uses backlit paintings of the famous Grateful Dead concert at Haight Ashbury in 1968. We dispensed with the holiday color scheme and let our freak flags fly with a big burst of color!"

Check out the 17-minute clip, as well as some of Flagpole photographer Savannah Cole's shots from the parade, and revel in all the Christmas magic below: 

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