Naperville, Illinois gets the holidays off to a great start with the Little Friends Electric Lights Parade, held in downtown Naperville. This parade officially marks the start of Naperville’s Hometown Holidays. The parade concludes with the Grand Illumination of Downtown Naperville.
Be sure to bundle everyone up well and bring your own lawn chairs to set up along the parade route. The parade route begins at Centennial Beach, turning East on Jackson Avenue, North on Webster, West on VanBuren, and winds up on Eagle Street. I find that a great spot to set up your chairs is along the side street across from Nichols Library. This is also a great spot, because if you have young children, you can take them over to the library if they need to use the restroom.
This year’s 2011 parade takes place on November 25, and begins at 4:30 pm, but be sure to get there early if you want good spots in which to place your chairs. The parade features floats from several local businesses, and has costumed characters that walk along tossing out candy to the children along the parade route. The highlight of the parade, at least to me, is when Santa and Mrs. Claus finally arrive. At the conclusion of the parade, Santa and his wife will be on the Main Stage, located at Jefferson and Webster streets.
From the Main Stage, around 5:45 pm, Santa will flip the switch that will in turn illuminate over 300,000 white twinkling lights, illuminating downtown Naperville. The large Christmas tree located where the Dandelion Fountain resides in the summer months will also be lit at this time. Santa and his wife will stick around after the parade to visit with the children, until around 8pm.
This parade is a nice event to attend with your family and really sets the mood for the upcoming Christmas season. For more information, please visit www.downtownnaperville.com .