Who doesn’t love going to a Christmas parade to watch brightly colored floats, hear Christmas tunes and see children dressed in Christmas attire?
In order for all Brownsville residents have the chance to attend this year’s parade, organizers are breaking tradition and will now hold the parade on a Saturday. This year’s parade is scheduled for Dec. 3 at 7 p.m.
For years, Brownsville’s Christmas Parade has been held on Mondays, but at a Charro Days Fiesta Board Meeting, members voted to move the parade to Saturdays, said Henry LeVrier, president of Charro Days Fiesta.
LeVrier said the change was made to give everyone a chance to attend the parade and to make it easier on the children participating in it.
“We are very excited [about the change],” LeVrier said. “We looked at it and looked at it; we kept on seeing concerns because it was a school night. We said, ‘Why don’t we look for a day that it could be more family oriented?’”
Holding the parade on Mondays made it hard on the parents, the public and the children, because the children would have to get up the next morning and get ready for school, according to organizers.
“It just seemed like it was rushed,” LeVrier said.
Charro Days Fiesta recently announced the change on its Facebook Page, and the public was very receptive, organizers said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from it. People seem to like it a lot,” LeVrier said. “We are all hoping this will be a positive change to give families an opportunity to really relax and enjoy it.”
Charro Days Fiesta reached out to the Brownsville Independent School District and the Brownsville Police Department to see what their thoughts were about the change, and they agreed it was a positive move, LeVrier said.
Organizations planning to participate in this year’s parade must submit their applications Nov 4 by 5 p.m. There’s a $125 non-refundable entrance fee. Non-profits will not be charged a fee.
