Noblesville to have nighttime holiday parade
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — After facing backlash in 2022 for ending an annual Christmas celebration, the city’s mayor Friday announced he’s “excited to try a new spin on the traditional downtown parade.”
The Holiday in Lights Parade, an evening event, will start at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 2, and anyone can be in the parade for a $25 fee. The fee will be waived for nonprofits and youth organizations.
A news release says the nighttime parade will celebrate Noblesville’s bicentennial.
Mayor Chris Jensen said in the release, “With First Friday on December 1 and activities taking place downtown on December 2 leading up to the parade, it’s going to be a very festive weekend in
Noblesville and a great way to kick off the holiday season.”
The downtown parade will travel through the Hamilton County Courthouse Square, where the iconic building and surrounding century-old ones will be decked for the holidays. The parade will start at the Ivy Tech Community College Hamilton County Campus, go through downtown, pass over the Logan Street bridge and go into Federal Hill Commons, a park west of State Road 19. The route will not loop back to the college campus.
Because it’s at night, Hamilton County Emergency Management will provide portable light stands along the route, and nonmotorized parade entries — i.e., pedestrians, bicyclists — will need to have reflective materials, or glow sticks or bracelets.
“Participants are reminded that Santa Claus will be the last entry in the parade and should not be replicated on other entries,” the news release added.
Parade participants can find details and enter online. Fees must be sent to City Hall by Nov. 27.
The traditional Noblesville Christmas Parade, put on pause in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ended in 2022. Instead, the city government decided to continue miniparades through selected neighborhoods, called Santa Tours, that began during the pandemic. The 41st annual Noblesville Christmas Parade on Dec. 1, 2019, was the city’s last.
A few days after the city government announced the end of the traditional daytime parade, officials announced its “Home for the Holidays Tours,” the updated Santa Tours. One of the six tours went along the former Christmas parade’s downtown route.