Abbotsford Christmas Parade celebration comes to town Dec. 2

The 52nd Abbotsford Christmas Parade will bring the holiday spirit to town on December 2. The parade starts at 7:30 in downtown Abbotsford. The route will be the same starting on Spruce street east of the railroad tracks, turn on to N 2nd st, turn on to Birch street, turn to 1st Street and back to Spruce St.

Spectators will line up to see “The best Christmas Parade Around” as over 300 characters and 45 floats will be bringing movies, Christmas themes and pop culture references to life. Encanto will come to life as a new float accompanied by characters Mirabel, Bruno and others. The float has a myriad of colors, lights and styles that bring out the essence of the movie.

Parade organizer Kris O’Leary said a lot of hard work went into the new float which included 40 hours of cutting, painting the roof alone and many more hours of decorating and lighting. The new float took a couple of months to build with the help of Kevin and Warren Flink, Kris O’Leary, Jenny Jakel, Missy Phillipi, Shelly Bender, Yennifer Parra Garcia, Diana Sosa, and Donna Dowden.

During volunteer days, the Abby School District staff contributed a half day, RCU employees contributed a full day and AbbyBank employees contributed a half day to replace lighting and redecorating the Caterpillar and Frosty the snow man floats. Carol O’Leary made a new Frosty costume to ride on the updated float. School kids have also worked helping move floats and repairing floats while getting their community service hours in. Their help saved over 100 hours in repair time for the committee. Now all we need is a big crowd to come enjoy the time that has gone into this annual event.

The parade will once again feature a raffle at the parade which includes a grand prize of a Yeti Cooler filled with $1,000 worth of meat donated by Nicolet National Bank. Other prizes include: $1,000 cash donated by Loos Machine and Automation, Inc, Tristar Printing Co. and TP Printing Co, Inc.

Pellet grill donated by Smith Bros. Meats and Maurina- Schilling Funeral Home A $500 Mastercard gift card donated by AbbyBank New Holland corn hole game donated by Cherokee Garage $150 Visa gift card donated by Forward Bank $200 yard stone gift certificate donated by Baumgartner’s Lumber and Materials $200 Visa gift card donated by Royal Credit Union $200 Shell gas card donated by K99-WKEB Radio $100 gift card donated by Taylor Credit Union $100 in chamber bucks donated by First City Dentistry $100 in Abby Colby Crossings chamber bucks donated by Century 21 Dairyland $100 pizza party donated by Pizza Hut Bathrooms and warming areas will be available during the parade at City Hall on 1st. St. and 3:16 Church on the corner of 2nd St. and Birch St.

The city of Abbotsford will have other events going on throughout the day at Abbotsford City Hall including: Shoppes on Candy Cane Lane vendor and craft show from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Photos with Santa from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Abbotsford Lion’s Club soup sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or until the soup is gone.

Kris O’Leary said the event wouldn’t be possible without the help of all the sponsors and volunteers. “This is a community event. The parade is the best Christmas parade around and that’s all because of the people that help put it on,” O’Leary said. “From prize donations to the time and effort that goes into putting the parade on, Abbotsford and the surrounding areas give a ton of time and to put on a great show.” If interested in volunteering to push or drive a float, dress up as a character or help set up or clean up, contact Kris O’Leary at 715-223-2342 during the day or 715-360-0901 during the evening.