What a blast! On Friday, I walked with The Christmas Place float in the 2008 Dollywood Parade – Santa’s sleigh with Santa, 9 reindeer (you didn’t forget Rudolph, did you?), Uncle Sam, and a few elves and junior elves – three miles through Pigeon Forge, Tennessee – my first parade ever. Three miles of grinning and waving like a nut at the plastic-wrapped crowds as I called out “Merry Christmas!” to the kids and bikers and grannies and teens.
But I confess, I really, really enjoyed it! Even in the rain, and even when people returned quizzical looks and raised eyebrows at hearing that particular greeting on the second Friday in April. (Hey, the Big Guy was, like, 20 feet behind me ~ what did they expect me to say??) I threw out a few Feliz Navidads and Mele Kalikimakas, too.
The best thing of all was the stunned looks on the faces of children still at that age to be in awe of Santa. Here’s our Singing Santa with his own granddaughter, Emma. You can see why he’s such a popular guy!

Here are Tristan, Tyler, Christopher, and Christian, our own Christmas Place junior elves, ready to get under way. Back when we were dry.

We were accompanied by our own personal tribute to Porter Wagoner, and Uncle Sam made an appearance on our float. Before the show, we were greeted by King Red the Lion. In front of us was a float full of Little Miss pageant winners, and behind us was the Wells Fargo stagecoach pulled by a beautiful team of matching horses.


We caught a glimpse of the diva Dolly Parton herself, as she made sure to greet all the participants just before we took to the street.
I say that, if you ever get a chance to be in a parade – take it. You’ll be glad you did – and it’s really a ton of fun. (Next year, though, I’m riding on the float – even if it means wearing striped leggings and a fur hat liberally adorned with bells! It’s not like I don’t already have that stuff in my closet…)
~Janet @ The Christmas Place