For the past 49 years, Manny Marcotte has worked hard to ensure the Cottonport Christmas Parade went forward -- rain or shine. This year, as the event celebrates its 50th anniversary this Sunday, Marcotte will find himself at the head of the parade as the grand marshal.

   “It came as a surprise to me,” Marcotte said. “In the past, I would get the parade started and then go back to my shop and stand outside and watch the parade go by.”

   One old saying that seems appropriate is that one cannot live life by just letting the parade pass them by.

   Another old saying the 73-year-old Marcotte is familiar with is, “You have to stop and smell the flowers.”

   He does that every day, as the long-time owner of City Florist in Cottonport.

   Marcotte has been involved in the town’s Christmas festivities “since Day 1.

   “Our first year we had a parade and fireworks,” he said. “The next year we added the queen’s pageant.”

  Activities that have become part of not only Cottonport’s Christmas tradition, but a parish tradition, include decoration judging on the Friday, fireworks on the Saturday and the parade on the Sunday of the annual celebration.

  Marcotte said it is his understanding that Cottonport’s parade is one of the largest Christmas parades in the state.

  The parade has had more than 100 entries in the past, but the number has dropped to 70-80 in recent years.

  “It depends on Mother Nature,” he said. “It just depends on whether it rains or not.”

  Marcotte said residents of the town decided 50 years ago that Cottonport should have some kind of special event. Plans were made for the Christmas celebrations.

  “Other towns in the parish have something for Christmas, but we always had the largest parade,” Marcotte said.

  Marcotte’s family roots in Avoyelles go back several generations. He was born in Mansura, but has lived in Cottonport for 55 years. He and his wife, Sharon, have two children -- Don Marcotte of Cottonport and Nicole Stewart of Moss Bluff -- who have given them four grandchildren, who in turn have blessed the Marcottes with seven great-grandchildren.

   After graduating from Mansura High, Marcotte attended Glenn Mann’s Floral Design School in Denver, Colorado. He has been in business for himself for 52 years.

  He has been a member of the Louisiana Pageant Judges Association for 50 years and has served as president for 15. He has judged pageants throughout the state and several out-of-state events. 

   He is a member of St. Mary’s Assumption Catholic Church.

   There have been so many parades and memories that it is hard to pick one as “most memorable,” Marcotte said.

   If he had to choose one, he said, it would the year “that we started off in bright sunshine, then halfway through there came a downpour.

  “Everyone looked like drowned rats on the floats,” he added with a laugh.

  His most enjoyable memory -- and one that is renewed every year -- is of the faces of the children as they wait with excitement for “dear old Santa Claus to come along.”