Small Town Christmas Parades

I love a parade.  It may be an antiquated form of entertainment, but that nothing shows off the heart of a small town quite like a parade.  

I don't know if Christmas Parades are a necessarily an exclusively Southern Tradition, but growing up in the Midwest we simply did not have them.  Here down South every town has their own Christmas Parade.  Our tiny little county has three different parades.  I'm guessing its simply a matter of temperature, the warmer climate allows of outdoor Christmas festivities.

There is something truly charming about the home-made low-budget feel of these parades.

Of course sometimes people get a touch lazy:  scrawl "Merry Christmas" on a piece of poster board and suddenly your Pickup Tuck is transformed into a parade float.

Its always fun to see the sort of things cook things people will come up with in these parades.

Sometimes things break down to the point of being surreal.....

One popular surreal attractions at the local parade circuit was the motorized port-a-potty that skittered down the road by itself....

Of course there is always room for improvement, which led to one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen.

Yes, that is a self propelled port-a-potty, with a cross on it pulling a Christmas Robot and Santa on a toilet.

In the environmental mecca of Asheville, NC there was a large number of cylcers in their Christmas Parade.

Bicycles are good for your health and the enviroment, so I guess everyone is a winner.....

Except for this poor kid....who is going to grow up with some issues.....

Then there is always is floats for organizations that you may not expect to have a parade float.....

Such as a Tuberculosis Sanatorium.....

A head shop.........

Or local pro wrestlers.
And what would a parade be without some horses.......

And of course what fun would horses be if they didn't crap in the street.................and wherever there are horses crapping in the street there are those who are there to clean it up for us.

Let's take a close look at the lady's crap bucket.....

Okay, those are some strange initials.....but I guess nothing says horse crap like "K-K-K".

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Parade Season.


The Carpetbagger

Please feel free to e-mail me at jacobthecarpetbagger@gmail.com
and check out my Flickr Photostream