8 Things to Take When Watching a Christmas Parade
Folding chair. Even if you are able to back your truck up to the street and watch from the tailgate, you may still want to sit in a folding chair in the bed of the truck to elevate you above potential hedges and passerbys. Better prepared than not.
Bluetooth (portable wireless) speaker. Have a playlist ready to go and make sure your wireless speaker is charged.. You can’t be sure of an available wifi network or fantastic mobile data coverage, so make sure your playlist is available offline.
(If you’re a a Spotify Premium user, here’s a good article I found to describe how to do just that: https://www.howtogeek.com/331671/how-to-save-spotify-music-offline-and-stop-using-mobile-data/)
For example, Spotify has a Christmas Classic playlist that I have found works great. It’s family-friendly with all the fan favorites. The parade floats will likely have their own music, but still it can be nice to have a great soundtrack to set the mood during all the time waiting for the parade to start and then again when breaking everything down and sitting in traffic afterwards.
Why not just use your phone? At least in my experience, the phone volume even on maximum was not enough . What can be more than sufficient indoors can’t compete with open spaces, breeze, and chatter from others nearby. I recommend that you don’t blast the music but keep it at a level at which you can comfortably hold conversation at a normal volume where you’re not having to yell at each other to be heard. The music is there to complement the experience, not substitute for family interaction.
You could just tune into a radio station that’s playing holiday music, but I’d prefer to go with the downloaded playlist instead of enduring pesky commercial advertisements.
Jackets or Blankets. Many parades wait until it’s dark to begin so that the floats’ lights have the most striking effect. But once the sun goes down, the temperature often drops right along with it. It may not be cold when you set out, but if you go ahead and grab coats and blankets, you could be thanking yourself later when it gets a little too chilly to be comfortable, especially when the breeze picks up.
Warm beverage. Take insulated, capped mugs of hot cocoa or coffee to sip. I say capped because no one wants to deal with spilled or sloshed drinks in their vehicle en route. I speak from experience.
Some seasonal costume accessories. Take a Santa hat or don an antler headband and put a red dot on your nose. Perhaps just a red and white scarf—just something that pops in a picture so that when you take a selfie of you and your family, one can tell from just looking at the picture it’s a special holiday occasion.
Selfie stick. Once you get settled, take pictures of your group before the parade starts until you get a few good shots that you know you like. That way you know it’s properly documented (ha!) for social media and you can enjoy the rest of the parade by being “present'“ in the moment. If you wait until during the parade, you may miss out on certain floats, and if you wait until after, you may not get pictures at all, as most people are just thinking of packing up to leave.
Optional: bottle of bubbles for warmer climates. Bubbles are the new snowflakes? I’m not completely sold on the idea of blowing bubbles as a spectator activity, but I saw them at my last Christmas parade and I find myself more in favor than not. Plus, for those who can’t sit still, it can give them and the kids something to do rather than simply sitting being bored until the parade begins.
Optional: bells. Another outlet for nervous energy. Noise is sometimes synonymous with children, so why not make it festive?
What have I missed? What are things you and your family take with you to watch a Christmas parade?