Christmas parade 2013

On Saturday evening Rensselaer held its annual Christmas parade. I got there a bit early and stood in line for a free cup of hot chocolate served at the Court House gazebo. I cannot find who sponsored that. As I reached the front of the line the parade started, and I rushed back to catch it all. There was a very good turnout considering how bitterly cold it was. Below you can see a bit of the crowd and also the Civilian Air Patrol far down the street. For some reason there was a big gap in the parade.

 The Rensselaer Retail Merchants wanted to remind people to shop locally.

 REMC had a one of their trucks decorated with lights. This year it was not alone with the light decorations.

 The Families of the JCYC will have a ribbon cutting on Tuesday at 1:00.

 I think this entry was from CenturyLink.

 The drummers drummed and the rest of the RCHS band marched.

 Very little candy was thrown. Instead people marched alongside the floats and handed candy to the kids.

The City of Rensselaer had another float decorated with lots of lights.

 Strack & Van Til had an attractive float.

 Below is the Alliance Bank float with Lafayette Bank & Trust in the background.

 Trinity United Methodist Church had three floats that presented a living Nativity. The shepherds had to walk their sheep.

 The camel elicited some oohs and aahs.

 This year there was a good sized contingent of horse riders.

 Bringing up the end of the parade was Santa riding in a carriage. There were supposed to be free carriage rides available at the end of the parade, but it was too cold to stay around and take one. My camera was in pain long before the end of the float.

Instead of a carriage ride, I opted to go to the Chili supper that the Little Cousin Jasper Committee sponsored at the First Presbyterian Church. A lot of other people made the same choice.

There are more pictures here.