I have often written about the annual Mayor’s Christmas Parade that runs through my neighborhood. It is always one of the highlights of my year. My friend Carissa’s birthday is always in proximity to the parade so she throws a birthday brunch and then we all go out and watch the parade together. This year almost everyone brought something sweet so I was almost in a sugar coma by the time the parade rolled around.

I was laughing this year because this is the first time I’ve seen them put an end time on the parade saying it ran from 1-3. Based on past experience I thought either they’ve cut way down on what’s in the parade or it’s going to end a lot later than 3. I was correct. After the sun went behind the buildings it got cold and we’d been out there a long time, so we actually cut out a little early, but based on the drums I could hear from my house it definitely didn’t end until between 4:30 and 4:45.

It was pretty much the same stuff as every year, so I’m just going to throw up a few photos of the new things I noticed this year plus a few of my favorites I took pictures of. Also of note that even though it’s called the Mayor’s Christmas Parade, our current mayor hasn’t been at it for the past 2 years. There were unsurprisingly plenty of mayoral candidates marching this year though. My favorite was the fact that Catherine Pugh didn’t bother showing either but had a contingent of 6 or 7 people marching carrying signs with her face on them that they were holding up.