The Springfield Christmas Parade is wrapping up final preparations for its December 7th event.
Traditionally, the Springfield Parade is the first Saturday in December and kicks off the holiday season. This year, that date is coincidentally also a memorable one for the World War II generation - that of December 7th over 7 decades ago. In honor of that significance and those who served during that time, the parade committee reached out and there will be over 70 local individuals recognized and honored in the parade. We will have nurses who trained and served in the United States Cadet Nurse Corps and members of the Association of Rosie the Riveter. We will also have almost 60 local veterans who have made the Honor Flight back to DC and their WWII Memorial. There will be banners and signs designating who these “Community Heroes” are. Be sure to wave and honor them in the way they so richly deserve.
82 entries signed up for this year’s parade. From unicycles to Hawaiian dancers – from Christmas Story floats to Smokey Bear’s story – from Duck Trucks to airplanes – and everything in between, the parade will follow its festive route from Olympic to Mohawk and south to 14th and Main Streets where it then heads west to end at Pioneer Parkway and C Street.
At 1 PM, leading the way to “A Storybook Christmas” will be Grand Marshal Nancy Golden, retired Springfield School District Superintendent and current Oregon Director of Education. We all know that one of Nancy’s favorite activities is reading to children. We hear that she plans to have her grandchildren with her in the Grand Marshal car - a storybook moment, for sure!
Of course, Santa will make his annual visit at the end of the parade, thanks to those wonderful connections to the North Pole that the SUB elves have every year.
Free goodies along the parade route – cocoa, popcorn, cookies – are set up by local businesses. And, remember, prior to the parade the Oregon Tuba Ensemble will have its Annual Tuba Carol Concert at Two Rivers/Dos Rios School (1084 G Street) at Noon. Free admission. First come, first seated. Enjoy the music and then walk over to the parade route to watch the parade!