GULF SHORES, Ala. — In an effort to avoid head-to-head competition with the SEC championship football game, Gulf Shores is moving its Christmas parade from Saturday to a Friday night event.

The City Council recently approved the move and also picked a contractor to provide food for concession stands at city ball parks.

Director of Recreation and Cultural Affairs Grant Brown said after much study, a Friday evening parade for Christmas was the best solution.

“As we looked at other events from other communities, we were having a hard time finding another weekend Saturday or day to put this parade on and our kickoff event for the Christmas Season,” he said. “We would like to move this parade to a Friday evening. This would be the time of the year when kids are still in school so we want to do it in the evening, a 6:30 parade.”

During the past Mardi Gras celebration city officials studied some of the night events in the county and decided the city could do the same at Christmastime.

“Chief (Edward) Delmore and I discussed this in the Mardi Gras season,” Brown said. “We watched the Mardi Gras parades in the evening, after dark with the lights that they have in Orange Beach. Between his group and our group we feel like we can successfully do an evening parade safely.”

Plus, Brown said, it will make for livelier decorations for the parade participants.

“It would add a tremendous value to the floats and the participants to be able to use Christmas lights when they decorate for the parade,” he said.

The council was receptive to the change in schedule.

“That could make for a real lively event,” Mayor Robert Craft said. “It would be a lot more exciting with the lights. I think it’s a good idea.”

Brown said the event would be tied to the traditional city events for the holiday season.

“Following the parade we would then head to the beach for their normal open house which would roll right into that period of time,” he said. “It would be a later evening event for the families.”

The city also hopes to coordinate with other groups having holiday events around the same time, Brown said.

“It would be a different crowd than those for Mardi Gras parades,” he said. “It would be more families, more locals. We’re working with the Coastal Christmas committee to put a lot of events around the same time frame so people can come to town and they can actually have multiple type events.

“Whether it be our parade or the Foley parade in the day or then with the chamber and the lighted boat parade, we’re going to try to coordinate all that as a big weekend push.”

On the concession stand food, the council went with Brown’s recommendation of Sysco Gulf Coast.

“They have multiple-days a week delivery, no charge for delivery of smaller case products and their pricing was equal or better than the other respondent,” he said. “It’s very difficult when you’re comparing some that were higher and some that were lower.

“For most of the goods we consume, Sysco was the better price and has a better service and better delivery schedule. That is imperative because we’ll have issues pop up very quickly that we may not be able to meet their shorter delivery schedule.”