Celebrate Fort Walton Beach this month with book launch, museum tour and Christmas parade

FORT WALTON BEACH — The city’s history, traditions and community spirit will be celebrated at three upcoming Christmas season events.

Open House

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, the City of Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park & Cultural Center will host its Annual Christmas Open House at the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum, 127 Miracle Strip Parkway S.E. Admission is free.

Hats, lunch pails and bonnets sit on a rack beneath a portrait of longtime Okaloosa County educator William C. Pryor at the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum in Fort Walton Beach. The Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park & Cultural Center contains the schoolhouse as well as the Indian Temple Mound Museum, the Garnier Post Office Museum, Fort Walton Temple Mound and the Civil War Exhibit Building.

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Visitors will be able to explore the historic and decorated two-room schoolhouse, which will turn 110 years old next year. The event also will feature children’s crafts, old-fashioned games and toys, light refreshments, and local history.

The schoolhouse museum maintains and interprets items from the early history of Camp Walton and education in Okaloosa County from 1911 to the 1930s. The building was the first schoolhouse built for the children of Camp Walton, later to be Fort Walton Beach, and has been moved three times.

During the open house, the Garnier Post Office Museum and Civil War Exhibit Building next to the schoolhouse museum also will be decorated for an old-fashioned celebration with refreshments and activities, including butter-churning and sampling.

Parade

Starting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 6, the city’s annual Christmas Parade will take place along Eglin Parkway from First Street to Hughes Street. This year’s theme is “Christmas Characters,” and everyone is invited to gather along Eglin to watch the parade and cheer on their favorite characters.

Santa Claus will make a special appearance on the last float in the parade.

New book

From 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, at the historic Gulfview Hotel building, community members will celebrate the launch of the book, “Fort Walton Beach: A Journey Through Time,” by author Lauren Sage Edwards.

The historic and renovated Gulfview Hotel building on Miracle Strip Parkway in downtown Fort Walton Beach houses a visitors center, museum, gift shop, several offices and a conference room.
The historic and renovated Gulfview Hotel building on Miracle Strip Parkway in downtown Fort Walton Beach houses a visitors center, museum, gift shop, several offices and a conference room.

The restored Gulfview Hotel building, the oldest standing structure in Fort Walton Beach, is at 115 Miracle Strip Parkway S.E.

Edwards’ book is a work of historical fiction based on her research and the memories and stories shared by people who lived in Fort Walton Beach, according to information from the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber officials describe the book as a 10-chapter children’s book for readers ages “6 to 106.” Copies of it will be available for purchase at the event.

In addition to Edwards, the invited guests to the book launch party will include artists and teachers from Choctawhatchee and Fort Walton Beach high schools who contributed to the book’s creation, history experts who were consulted for the project, elected officials, and members of the media.

A light dinner catered by Magnolia Grill will be provided. A short program is set to start at 6 p.m., followed by book signings by the author and artists.

The two-story Gulfview Hotel building houses an Okaloosa County Tourist Development Department visitors center, executive offices, a conference room, the William Augustus Bowles Pirate Museum, and a Chamber of Commerce gift shop.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Fort Walton Beach Christmas events: Open house, parade and book launch