Foothills Christmas Parade of Lights begins Friday
Vehicles in all shapes and sizes line up in annual parade
If you have a vehicle that goes 35 miles per hour, get in line.
Get in line for Foothills Christmas Parade of Lights.
Or, if you don’t want be in the parade, you can stand at roadside and watch it go by.
Over three consecutive nights starting Friday, cars, pickups, all-terrain vehicles and other modes of motorized transportation that will pass single file throughout the Foothills in a holiday tradition that goes back more than three decades.
And each and every vehicle is decked out in Christmas lights. It is the holiday season, after all.
After a nightly safety meeting that all participating drivers are required to attend, the parade gets under way at about 6 p.m. from a staging area at 46th Street and Foothills Boulevard. Friday it will pass through neighborhoods on the southeast corner of the Foothills, and on Saturday it will cover the remaining areas south of Interstate 8. On the final night it will cross the interstate to the north side, including part of Mesa del Sol.
The inaugural parade back in 1986 consisted of eight dune buggies strung together with rope and illuminated by a single generator. That’s a cry from what spectators will see in the kickoff of the three-night event Friday, when 100 or more vehicles are expected to get in line.
Rudy Wallace, coordinator of the parade, is always looking for more vehicles to line up. There are, however, a few ironclad rules that must be followed by people who choose to participate.
Whatever vehicles they drive but be able to travel at least 35 mph, and must be decorated with lights and other holiday ornaments.
Drivers must be at the staging area each evening by 5:30 p.m. to listen to a briefing about traffic safety given by the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s deputies and volunteers will then leave with the parade as escorts.
Drivers are not allowed to drink alcohol prior or during the parade.
Also, no one riding in a parade vehicle is permitted to throw out candy to people watching from the side of the road. The reason for that rule is to avoid the risk of a youngster being hit by the next vehicle in line while rushing into the street to get the sweets.
Parade organizers stress the no candy rule to participants every year, says Wallace, but every year someone violates it.
People caught throwing candy will be kicked out of the parade, he says. But the consequences of breaking the rule could be even worse than that.
“If you’re going to throw candy, you better have deep pockets,” Wallace said.
All other pertinent traffic rules will be explained at the time of the safety briefings.
As was the case last year, parade organizers are using the event to collect food for the Yuma Community Food Bank. People who turned out for the parade are asked to bring canned goods or other non-perishable food items with them for donation to the food bank. Collection boxes will be located at the parade’s staging area and at some of the recreational vehicle parks that are on its nightly routes.
To see maps of each night’s parade route, visit the Facebook page for Foothills Parade of Lights or Nextdoor.com.
Wallace said two RV parks and two manufactured home parks have been omitted from the northside route, which in past years was 30 or 45 minutes longer in duration than the two others and, as a result, had fewer vehicles participating.