2024 Christmas Parade big hit despite cold, route change
Published 1:24 pm Tuesday, December 17, 2024
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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR CORRESPONDENT
Although several people wanted to be a Grinch about the new Elizabethton Christmas Parade route for 2024 due to the impacts from Hurricane Helene on the Broad Street Bridge, as the saying goes, “The parade must go on,” and it did to the delight of those who lined West G Street from one end of the route until the end.
Presented by Main Street Elizabethton, the parade had 100 entries in this year’s Christmas edition, with the Elizabethton/Carter County Boys and Girls Club selected as the grand marshal.
Floats began staging on Jason Witten Way around 2 p.m. Saturday as a large host of volunteers helped in the parade, from staging floats to working the intersections and making sure visitors stayed on the sidewalks for safety purposes.
Even the chilly wind that blew throughout the parade couldn’t dampen the Christmas spirit of those who came out after enduring one of the most devastating events in Carter County history with the flood that came at the end of September with Helene.
Churches, local high school bands, dance teams, fire trucks, businesses and organizations were just a few of those who were represented in the parade.
Some of the fan favorites were the gigantic toilet float provided by Townsend Plumbing, the Shrine Temple belly dancer, and of course a visit by the jolly old elf himself, Santa Claus, who rode on top of the City of Elizabethton Fire Department ladder truck to close out the parade.
All photos by Ivan Sanders/Star Correspondent
