Gilroy’s downtown weekend holiday parade looks to set a new
precedent
Gilroy – The ghosts of Christmas past must have visited downtown business owners, who are heralding a new era in the city’s historic core with a holiday celebration of unprecedented scale.
Past years have seen a handful of floats in the holiday parade, but more than 25 local groups are participating in this weekend’s event.
Singers and dancers, Rita the Rabbit and Faboo the Bear will greet parade watchers, as will an antique bus packed with girls from the Gilroy Chaos Softball Team and musicians with the Gilroy High School marching band.
“This is turning into a full-on actual parade,” said organizer Dawn Guillen, owner of Dilly Dally Alley, a Monterey Street children’s clothing store. “I decided to make it a good one this year.”
The parade begins Saturday at 5pm and will follow its usual northerly path along the city’s main drag between Sixth and Fourth streets.
Santa Claus will bring up the rear in his carriage, looping back to the corner of Fifth and Monterey streets to light the downtown Christmas tree.
Afterward, children can visit with Santa in the breezeway of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, where they can get cotton candy and popcorn and watch a marionette show.
Earlier in the day, members of the California BBQ Association will roll out 30 grills at Lewis and Monterey streets to cook up donated turkeys for families in need, as part of the first annual Great Gilroy Gobbler Gathering. The two-day event includes live music and begins at noon on Saturday and at 11am on Sunday.
The Great Gilroy Gobbler Gathering will be “the last hurrah” for the parking lot, according to event organizer Steve Ashford, owner of an antique store on Monterey Street. He and other downtown business owners have used the site for years as a home for a weekend flea market and festivals, but a new office and apartments will rise on the site in the next two years.
The city’s vision for a renewed downtown includes a public square where residents can gather and hold events.
Other changes are afoot in downtown Gilroy as well.
Next year, Santa and the floats will not have to negotiate the winding median that snakes along Monterey Street. A major street renovation that includes widened sidewalks, tree plantings and new lampposts is expected to be complete by October 2006.
Mayor Al Pinheiro, who helps pull Santa’s sleigh each year during the parade, made his own holiday wish as the new year approaches.
“I hope that this is the start of great parades to come,” he said. “Once our downtown is all cleaned up with new streets and well lit, we’ll have a better chance of bringing people to the heart of our community.”
