{"id":17709,"date":"2021-11-30T23:46:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T04:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=17709"},"modified":"2021-11-30T23:46:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T04:46:55","slug":"lakeland-christmas-parade-kicks-off-holiday-events-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2021\/11\/30\/lakeland-christmas-parade-kicks-off-holiday-events-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Christmas Parade Kicks Off Holiday Events"},"content":{"rendered":"\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<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"663\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/christmas-parade-route-port-a-jon-locations-2021.jpg?resize=1024%2C663&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17710\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/christmas-parade-route-port-a-jon-locations-2021.jpg?resize=1024%2C663&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/christmas-parade-route-port-a-jon-locations-2021.jpg?resize=300%2C194&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/christmas-parade-route-port-a-jon-locations-2021.jpg?resize=768%2C497&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/christmas-parade-route-port-a-jon-locations-2021.jpg?w=1290&amp;ssl=1 1290w\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\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 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 2<sup>nd<\/sup>, First Friday on December 3<sup>rd<\/sup>,Snowfest on December 4<sup>th<\/sup>, Santa\u2019s Calling on December 7<sup>th<\/sup>, the Holly Jog Jingle Bell Jog and Selfies with Santa 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>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; The parade starts with a firework display over&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","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-17709","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\/17709","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=17709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}