Long-running Historic Downtown parade to kick-off Pocatello’s Christmas season
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POCATELLO – A decades-old parade through the heart of the Gate City is set to usher in its Christmas season yet again.
The Christmas Night Lights Parade will take place on the day that it has for at least 35 years, which is Friday, Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving.
“It’s really the official beginning of the Christmas season,” said Stephanie Palagi, the president of Historic Downtown Pocatello.
The parade has been a tradition for so long now that despite Palagi running it for 20 years now, she doesn’t know how it began. But she pointed out that the city had similar Christmas parades even before this iteration.
“If you look back in the 1930s and 40s, Santa was downtown in a parade along Main Street. It wasn’t in the evening, it was during the daytime, but there has always been some type of a Christmas parade downtown,” Palagi said.
The veterans honor guard and the Pocatello Police Department take the lead in the parade, with over 100 brightly lit floats following it.
Palagi reminded people to not park along the parade route, and instead plan for the cold weather and “bundle up.”
There’s still time for organizations to register their floats in the parade. Palagi said the deadline to register is on Wednesday, and added that they’re required to have lights on their float, not just to fit with the rest of the parade, but also for safety reasons.
This year’s parade theme is ‘Traditions of Christmas Past.’
“We expect to see a lot of historical type floats. Maybe it’s a Christmas movie from the past,” Palagi said.
With the parade running for so many years, Palagi said there’s children who have come every year of their lives, and she’s excited to continue that tradition this year.
“We have children that have come to the parade their entire lives every single year, haven’t missed a parade, and that’s one of our jobs. We like to create memories of downtown and the experiences you have downtown,” Palagi said.
