“I’m On A Float”
So, tonight we met up with some friends and went to the Christmas parade in town. Now, I grew up going to small town Christmas parades and there’s still something fun about bundling up grabbing some hot chocolate, blankets and folding chairs and sitting on the sidewalk to watch these folks roll by yelling ‘Merry Christmas’ and waving.
Tonight as we were standing there, and I was watching all the kids lined up waving, smiling and eagerly waiting for the floats that went by tossing candy out to them, and I started thinking about how many ‘rules’ that we work so hard to teach our kids that are being destroyed.
‘Don’t play in the street’, we say. ’Don’t play near moving vehicles’, we say. ’Don’t take candy from strangers’ we say. But this one night, the night of the ‘small-town Christmas parade’ all these things are tossed out the window like the candy they are scrambling for.
“Come on kids, lets go out into unhealthy, frigid conditions, and run out into the street as close as you can to a Dodge Ram covered in Christmas lights, and crawl around on the ground looking for candy thrown by some guy dressed as a wise man. Oh yeah, and there really are four Santa Clauses.”
Seriously though, we had a great time. The kids loved it. We came home with full pockets of candy, and are slowly warming back up.
So let’s hear it. Are you a Christmas parade goer?
lol… nice Brody… I ended up going to Lynchburg this afternoon and missed the parade, but this post is so full of truth it’s awesome.
Used to be. When we had a real “kid”. She’s still a kid, but making her own traditions this year. At 23. Man is it hard on mom!
I’m not anti-parades by any means, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I went to one.
What I don’t get are Pinatas. What kinda message does that send out to kids? This is what I’ve gathered:
1. Hang a creature by it’s neck
2. Continuously beat the hanging creature with a bat
3. Beat the creature with no mercy until its head is the only thing still dangling from the rope
4. Loot the creature’s corpse
Are you kidding?!? I don’t do cold. At all. Once the temp gets down below 50 degrees, you will find me outside as little as possible. I dress in layers in my own home. I HATE cold. So no, bah hum bug, I don’t do Christmas parades. I do love Christmas though
We went to the downtown Nashville parade last year but NO CANDY and NO Goodies it was just cold, did you go to a different town parade or did they just get bad feedback and throw candy this year? And yes we like parades
I used to go to the parades in Idaho. It was a super small town. They threw out candy & passed out chocolate milk. So worth it.
Here I’ve only been to once. Too many people and too much traffic! It’s a big deal. The lighting of the county building and all. My daughter Lys got to walk in the parade last night, but I didn’t go.
I have never been to a Christmas parade. There is a very large Thanksgiving Day parade in Detroit where Santa makes his first appearance…this is kind of the Detroit version of a Christmas parade (no jokes please). It really is a big deal, floats, inflatables (like Macy’s parade), marching bands, etc. While the rest of D-Town struggles economically the parade has proceeded unaffected. My wife and I always say “We should got to that parade some day”. Someday hasn’t happened yet. Maybe when the Detroit Lions start winning?
We started going to parades when my son was in junior high, years ago. He was in the school band and was always in one or two of the local parades each Christmas. However, we did not go to the parade this year. We had been out shopping and didn’t make it back home in time to go.
I’m originally from Philly. My father occasionally took us to the famous Mummers Parade on New Years Day. It was cold, and I don’t really remember if I had fun or not. I think it was just about spending time w/my dad w/out my mom — which didn’t happen often.