Here comes Santa Claus: Merry-Etta Christmas Parade lights up ...
(Photo by Michelle Dillon) Santa Claus shakes some jingle bells while riding in his sleigh in the Merry-Etta Christmas Parade Saturday evening.
Large crowds gathered in downtown Marietta Saturday night to partake of some holiday cheer.
The annual Merry-Etta Christmas Parade drew people to enjoy participants adorned with Christmas lights and decorations, Christmas music, a Santa sighting and more.
The Merry-Etta Christmas Parade has been held by Marietta Main Street for six or seven years, according to Marietta Main Street Executive Director Jen Tinkler, and it was started to bring holiday cheer downtown.
“We’re at 85 entries” in the parade not including fire trucks and snow plows, Tinkler said. “Everybody has some sort of Christmas lights.”
This year’s parade theme was “Frosty and Friends.”
(Photo by Michelle Dillon) One-year-old Kadence Decker, left, points at lights decorating a float during the Merry-Etta Christmas Parade Saturday evening as her grandmother, Marietta resident Eileen Bartlett, right, holds her.
Thousands of people attend the parade, Tinkler said. There were about 5,000 watching last year, she said.
“I think it brings holiday spirit,” Tinkler said. “The little kids love the parade. They love getting the candy and seeing the lights.”
The parade started around 6 p.m. and lasted about an hour, filled with big and small trucks, fire trucks, plows, and other vehicles, even a horse drawn carriage, outfitted with Christmas lights and decorations.
It also included holiday favorites like Frosty the Snowman, multiple Grinches, snowmen, Christmas trees and more. Santa Claus made an appearance at the very end.
The parade wound its way down Ohio and Greene Streets, then down Front Street, up Scammel Street and down Second Street as people lined the streets bundled up in coats, hats, scarves and even some blankets against the cold.
A crowd favorite was a Grinch shooting foam from a cannon, with children shouting when they saw him and dancing as the foam rained down around them. Christmas music played in front of the Marietta Armory during the parade and many participants threw candy to the crowd.
Marietta resident Eileen Bartlett was at the parade with her 1-year-old granddaughter Kadence Decker.
“We just come every year,” Bartlett said of her family.
She said her favorite part of the parade is “watching the kids.”
Tinkler thanked Marietta Main Street’s Hometown Holidays Committee for organizing the parade and other holiday events downtown.
The parade was sponsored by Par Mar, according to Marietta Main Street’s website.
More information about other Marietta Main Street holiday events can be found at www.mariettamainstreet.org/hometown-holidays.
