By Melvin Gray
The holiday season has officially begun and the one local event known for enhancing Christmas spirit and décor is the Downtown Raleigh area is just around the corner.
One of the largest holiday-centric events that makes its way through Downtown Raleigh around this time of year is the 71st Annual WRAL Raleigh Christmas Parade. Always occurring the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the holiday parade will begin promptly on November 21, at 9:40 AM.
The event is free to the public.
The holiday spectacle begins at the intersection of Hillsborough St. and St. Mary’s, and makes its way down to the City Plaza on Fayetteville St. Every year, the streets are lined with thousands of people, friends and family alike, waiting in anticipation to be amazed by the holiday spirit.
The annual event is sponsored by the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association and Shop Local Raleigh, which work together to promote locally-owned and independent businesses. This year, the Raleigh Christmas Parade is projected to bring crowds of over 65,000 to join in the experience, and is cited to be the single largest Christmas parade between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia.
If you are not able to be there for the event it will be broadcast live so that you are able to watch it from your home. The parade last approximately 2.5 hours so there is plenty to watch even if you miss the first part of it.
Also if you do happen to miss the entire parade, not to worry, the parade will be broadcast again on Christmas morning. The Christmas parade will be broadcast on WRAL’s station.
Characters expected to show up at the parade include, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and his fellow Christmas buddies, tailed by Santa Claus himself.
This joyous event is fun for the entire family.