TAVARES, Fla. – The city of Tavares is hoping to keep Santa Claus on a tighter timeline during its annual Christmas parade this year.
Tavares officials said business owners approached them about the parade becoming too big in recent years.
According to the city, since 2020 they have seen a 60% increase in the number of vehicles in the parade.
“We’ve heard from the residents, the business owners, and from a certain someone at the North Pole that it’s gotten way too long,” said Director of Support Services with the city of Tavares, Mark O’ Keefe.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
The jump in entries has caused the parade to go from an hour, to an hour-and-a-half, to upwards of two-and-a-half hours in 2023.
The issue was discussed at last week’s city council meeting where council members heard from city staff.
According to the agenda, in 2020 there were 157 vehicles in the parade, making it a little more than an hour long. In 2021 there were 213 vehicles in the parade making it just under two hours long. 2022 saw 234 vehicles in the parade, which made it just over two hours long. 2023 had the most entries with 251 vehicles, making the parade just over two-and-a-half hours long.
“The Christmas parade is a tremendous event,” O’Keefe said. “You see a lot of civic organizations participate and a lot of businesses and they were expanding to the point to where there were too many of the same vehicles from the same business, too many people from the civic organization, so we reasoned it would be smarter to sort of tone it down.”
Jon Aramino owns Puddle Jumpers Lakeside Grill in Tavares. He said the massive parade was negatively impacting his business because the parade prevented people from being able to get to his restaurant.
“Some of our parties, we only had half the people show up,” Aramino said. “Obviously we had some disgruntled customers, and clients that you know you book a large party for downstairs for 100 people, only 50 show up because no one wants to wait for the parade.”
Aramino is optimistic about the recently approved changes to the parade.
“I think the changes are great,” Aramino said. “I think the city listened to what we had to say, we’ve made some adjustments to the schedule, and how this is going to go forward. I think it’s going to be a really positive impact and we’ll wait and see.”
The city council voted on the following changes to the parade at its meeting last week:
- Limiting the total number of motorized vehicles to 175.
- Limiting nonprofit groups, clubs and citizen organizations to a maximum of 10 motorized vehicles or 25 golf carts per entry.
- Limiting commercial organizations and business entries to a maximum of two motorized vehicles per entry.
- Starting the parade at 5 p.m. rather than 5 p.m.
The goal is to streamline the event, provide more efficient planning and provide better visibility of performances. As of last week’s meeting, the parade route is still expected to go down both Ruby Street and Main Street.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: