SPENCER — The holiday season might be over for many, but the Spencer Board of Aldermen extended it just a bit longer Tuesday night when it held a reception thanking volunteers who helped with both the fourth annual WinterFest and the return of the Spencer Holiday Caravan parade.

In addition, the board presented plaques of proclamations for the organizers of both events.

Mayor Jonathan Williams presented the first proclamation to Kim Lentz, one of the organizers of Winterfest, who said she by no means was alone in putting things together.

“For a small town of about 3,500 people it’s amazing that we can pull this off every year,” said Williams, “but it doesn’t com without a lot of work and commitment.”

“I cannot thank the core group of people who work on this with me enough,” said Lentz. “We don’t sleep, dream about Winterfest all year long.” She also thanked all the volunteers who participated in both putting the event together and who worked the actual event.

“Some people who volunteered don’t even live in this country,” noted Lentz, nodding to a row of international students from Livingstone College who volunteered at the event.

Board member Past Sledge said there were “about 66 individual volunteers” who worked on the event. “I still can’t believe we had that many.”

Next year’s event, which includes numerous vendors and activities, is already on the books for the first full weekend in December, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, said Lentz, and it will be held in the town’s new park in front of town hall, currently under construction.

Williams then presented a proclamation plaque to Lynn Purvis and Heather Resino, the mother-daughter duo who pulled together the Holiday Caravan parade starting in August.

“Knowing what they and their group were able to do in three months’ time, I can’t wait to see what they do with 12 months to plan,” said Williams.

Resino said the parade has been a family tradition for years, and she was unwilling to accept that the town of Spencer would not have a parade, so she got to work. When she and Purvis began reaching out to see who would attend an initial meeting, they realized they needed more space than they thought because there was so much support.

“The night of the parade, when I was carrying the banner and I turned the corner (from Jefferson onto Salisbury), the emotions hit,” said Resino. “In all my years, I have never seen that many people along the streets, and it was amazing.”

Spencer started the holiday parade decades ago, eventually combining with Salisbury for a two-town parade, but this year, the towns returned to hosting their own parades.

The Spencer parade included food trucks and participation from a number of local restaurants offering parade specific fare.

Resino announced that next year’s parade will be held Nov. 26, with step off between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. and said a number of participants are already lined up.