{"id":17178,"date":"2021-11-15T12:46:45","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T17:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=17178"},"modified":"2021-11-15T12:46:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T17:46:55","slug":"lakeland-christmas-parade-kicks-off-holiday-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2021\/11\/15\/lakeland-christmas-parade-kicks-off-holiday-events\/","title":{"rendered":"LAKELAND CHRISTMAS PARADE KICKS OFF HOLIDAY EVENTS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:25px\"><strong>NO CHAIRS UNTIL THE DAY OF THE EVENT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Lakeland Christmas Parade is a time-honored tradition, enjoyed by the community for generations.&nbsp; The parade takes place on Thursday, December 2<sup>nd<\/sup>.&nbsp; The parade starts with a firework display over Lake Mirror at 7 p.m.&nbsp; As the first firework is launched, the parade officially begins.&nbsp; Leaving the RP Funding Center, the parade travels down Lemon Street toward downtown.&nbsp; The parade then turns at Main Street to Cedar Street and winds around Lake Mirror, going up Orange Street and ending at the RP Funding Center.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"706\" height=\"1024\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 100vw, 706px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1521-706x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1521-706x1024.jpg 706w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1521-207x300.jpg 207w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1521-768x1114.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1521-1059x1536.jpg 1059w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_1521.jpg 1289w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year\u2019s parade has 88 participants, including floats, marching bands and decorated trailers.&nbsp; The parade ends with everyone\u2019s favorite, Mr. and Mrs.&nbsp; Clause.&nbsp; The theme for this year is&nbsp;<em>Season of Joy&nbsp;<\/em>with each float incorporating the theme into their design.&nbsp;&nbsp;Recognized as one of Lakeland\u2019s largest annual events, participants step off from the RP Funding Center to begin the 1.25-mile parade route that travels downtown and back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The City asks that no chairs be placed on the parade route until the day of the parade.&nbsp; Each year, many of those attending the parade start staking their claim earlier and earlier.&nbsp; Fire Chief Doug Riley says, \u201cWe understand people want a good vantage point to watch the parade.&nbsp; Unfortunately, we have chairs blocking sidewalks and crosswalks days before the parade.\u201d&nbsp; Police Chief Reuben Garcia adds, \u201cThis causes a major hazard, especially for those in our community that use wheelchairs and walkers to get around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;City will remove\/relocate chairs that are totally blocking sidewalks, in the way of crosswalks and hindering the use of disabled parking spaces.&nbsp; We understand the excitement of this yearly event, but we also want to keep in mind the safety of all our citizens.&nbsp; Riley and Garcia say, \u201cPlease, no chairs on the parade route before Thursday, December 2<sup>nd<\/sup>.\u201d&nbsp; Chairs, tape, blankets and other materials used to save viewing spaces will be removed if placed in public right-of-way before the day of the parade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This busy time of year begins with the Lakeland Christmas Parade on December&nbsp;2<sup>nd<\/sup>, First Friday on December&nbsp;3<sup>rd<\/sup>,&nbsp;Snowfest on December&nbsp;4<sup>th<\/sup>, Santa\u2019s Calling on December 7<sup>th<\/sup>,&nbsp;the Holly Jog Jingle Bell Jog&nbsp;and Selfies with Santa&nbsp;on December 11<sup>th&nbsp;<\/sup>and the Canned Tuna Concert in Munn Park on December 17<sup>th<\/sup>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The City of Lakeland wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a very joyous holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NO CHAIRS UNTIL THE DAY OF THE EVENT The Lakeland Christmas Parade is a time-honored tradition, enjoyed by the community for generations.&nbsp; The parade takes place on Thursday, December 2nd.&nbsp;&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[1719],"class_list":["post-17178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-lakeland-christmas-parade-kicks-off-holiday-events"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}