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The following is a list of holiday parades that occur between Thanksgiving Day (in the U.S.) and early January, coinciding with the Christmas and holiday season .
St Andrews: Saturday Dec 6 Fredericton: Saturday Nov 29 Caraquet: Saturday Nov 15 Sussex: Saturday Dec 6 Bathurst: Sunday Dec 7
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety of celebration.
Santa Claus parades, also called Christmas parades, are parades held in some countries to celebrate the official opening of the Christmas season with the arrival of Santa Claus who always appears in the last float. The parades usually include themed floats, dancing or marching groups and bands playing Christmas songs. They are moving pageants that typically end near the centre of a city. Often sponsored by department stores, they may reinforce the store's brand recognition during the important Christmas shopping season.
The Toronto Santa Claus Parade, also branded as The Original Santa Claus Parade, is a Santa Claus parade held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Christmas lights are lights often used for decoration in celebration of Christmas, often on display throughout the Christmas season including Advent and Christmastide. The custom goes back to when Christmas trees were decorated with candles, which symbolized Christ being the light of the world. The Christmas trees were brought by Christians into their homes in early modern Germany.
The Rich's Great Tree, now the Macy's Great Tree, was a large 70–90-foot (21–27 m) tall cut pine Christmas tree that had been an Atlanta tradition since 1948. As of 2013, the tree has been replaced by a much smaller artificial one in the parking lot, which was then moved back to the roof for 2014. Before ending the tradition in December 2023.
Numerous festivals, shows and exhibitions are held annually in Toronto. They include:
The observance of Christmas around the world varies by country. The day of Christmas, and in some cases the day before and the day after, are recognized by many national governments and cultures worldwide, including in areas where Christianity is a minority religion. In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration ; in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday.
Sutton is a suburban community located nearly 2 km south of Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada. The community was formerly a village but is now part of the Town of Georgina after amalgamation with it and North Gwillimbury in 1971. The Black River runs on the north end of the downtown. Highway 48 goes just south of the downtown. Sutton has a population of just over 6,000 people. Sutton is located about 1 hour north of Toronto.
The Magnificent Mile Lights Festival is an annual event celebrated in Chicago on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. An estimated one million lights on 200 trees brighten the city's Michigan Avenue, also known as the Magnificent Mile. The festival is hosted by The Magnificent Mile Association, formerly the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, and is the third largest parade in the country, according to the chair of the festival.
The Hollywood Christmas Parade is an annual American parade held on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It follows a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) route along Hollywood Boulevard, then back along Sunset Boulevard, featuring various celebrities.
The Christmas season or the festive season; also known as the holiday season or the holidays, is an annual period generally spanning from late November or December to early January. Incorporating Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the various celebrations during this time create a peak season for the retail sector extending to the end of the period. Christmas window displays and Christmas tree lighting ceremonies are customary traditions in various locales.
A Christmas pageant is a public event conducted in celebration of the Christmas holiday, typically involving an entertainment in the form of a procession, or a Nativity play or other performance.
The Natchitoches Christmas Festival is held annually in Natchitoches, Louisiana on the first weekend in December.
The Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade is a Christmas ships festival in Newport Beach, California, United States, established at the turn of the 20th Century by John Scarpa and Joseph Beek.
Light Up Night is a family festival in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania coinciding with the unofficial start of the Christmas holiday shopping season. Many retailers in Downtown Pittsburgh remain open late, and street vendors and other concessionaires sell food and give away hot beverages, treats and promotional items. The city is decorated with Christmas lights, trees, among other holiday decorations. On Light Up Night, the skyscrapers and buildings in and around downtown keep their lights on throughout the night, lending to the name. Over 200,000 people attend the festivities.
Christmas in Hawaii is a major annual celebration, as in most of the Western world.
Christmas traditions in Australia, like Christmas in New Zealand, have many similarities to British, Irish, American and Canadian traditions, including traditional Christmas symbols featuring winter iconography. This means a red fur-coated Father Christmas or Santa Claus riding a sleigh, songs such as "Jingle Bells", and various Christmas scenes on Christmas cards and decorations. However, the timing of Christmas occurring during the Southern Hemisphere's summer season has resulted in the development of some local traditions as a result of the warmer weather.
Bentleyville "Tour of Lights" is one of America's largest free walk-through lighting displays. It is located in Duluth, Minnesota and runs annually from November 21 to December 27. The 2020 season of the attraction introduced a new drive-through layout, to better fit and help with restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and returned to its traditional walk-through format for the year 2021.
Christmas ships are boat parades held at Christmastime, typically featuring boats festooned with Christmas lights or winter/holiday decorations.
In Portland, Oregon, Christmas trees have been installed at Pioneer Courthouse Square annually since the public space opened in 1984. The trees have been donated by Stimson Lumber Company since 2002, and are delivered the week of Veterans Day. With some exceptions, the trees are 75-foot-tall Douglas firs, decorated with thousands of multi-colored LED lights.
