Your guide to 21 SC Christmas parades and other holiday events in 2022
Holiday-related events kick off in earnest around South Carolina this weekend.
Home tours, parades, Chanukah on the Square, ballet — there’s something for everyone in the weeks to come.
Christmas parades
The 69th Annual Carolina Carillon Holiday Parade will begin at 9:45 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of Sumter Street and Laurel Street toward the USC Horseshoe and end on Senate Street.
Entries come from across the state in what is considered South Carolina’s official holiday parade.
The parade will have more than 100 entries, including marching bands, drill teams, floats, beauty queens, cheerleaders, dancers, schools, churches, classic cars and of course, as is tradition, Santa at the end.
WIS-TV’s coverage begins at 10 a.m. and will reach 40 of South Carolina’s 46 counties.
In Lexington, the Snowball Festival begins Thursday and runs through Sunday with crafts, a carolighting and movies nights before the parade on Sunday. The event is held at the Icehouse Amphitheatre.
On Thursday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., a craft fair will be open. At 6:30 p.m. the carolighting will be held followed by a screening of the movie The Polar Express. A carnival will be held on Saturday with a screening of Elf. Sunday it all wraps up with the annual parade at 3 p.m.
Greenville’s Poinsettia Christmas Parade, which has been around for more than 75 years, will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday. Restaurateur Carl Sobocinski will be the grand marshal.
The parade travels down Main Street in downtown Greenville and as with the Columbia parade, includes the full contingent of floats and other entries.
And don’t forget the Elgin Catfish Stomp Parade, beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday. Their website said the town “jumps with excitement” — get it catfish jump out of the water, but usually to avoid predators.
The day includes arts and crafts vendors, and of course catfish stew and fried catfish. The Miss Catfish Stomp Pageant for females ages 0-adult will be held as well.
Other parades this weekend include Charleston, Greer, Anderson, Simpsonville, Greenwood and Prosperity on Sunday.
Kershaw County’s parade will begin at 10 a.m. Dec. 10, featuring fire trucks, floats, pageant winners, classic cars, dancing, music, Santa.
It begins at the corner of Broad Street and Laurens in downtown Camden and will proceed along Broad Street and end at the City Arena.
Dec. 18 is the annual Boykin Christmas Parade, which organizers describe as “the world’s most unique Christmas Parade.”
They also called it an “xtravagazna of joy and rural whacko.”
The 2 p.m. parade “draws thousands of spectators to the tiny hamlet of Boykin to enjoy a country Christmas and see what means of transportation Santa will find! You just never know what to expect at the Boykin Christmas Parade!”
Once they had someone in an alligator costume in camo on a four wheeler.
A Gospel concert at the historic Swift Creek Baptist Church follows the parade.
There is no entry fee, but they like donations to support Swift Creek Church.
Chanukah
Chanukah in the Square will be held Dec. 18 on Charleston’s Marion Square from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. It includes food — latkes! — and music as well as the lighting of a giant menorah. This is the 15th year of the event.
Holiday home tours
If you’re looking for home tours, many South Carolina communities have them. In fact, Columbia has two.
Historic Columbia’s tours of the Robert Mills House and the Hampton-Preston Mansion have been underway since Nov 16 and run until Dec. 30.
“Tour guides will provide stories of holidays past in Columbia and discuss how families decorated and entertained during the 19th century,” Historic Columbia’s website says. “At the Robert Mills House, guests will see how a home of its size might have been decorated in the 1820s during the time before Christmas trees were popular. Across the street at the Hampton-Preston Mansion, Christmas of the 1850s was very different from today, but some current holiday traditions have their roots from this time.”
They mention eggnog, poinsettias and Christmas trees as part of the Victorian era holidays.
Tours are about an hour and 15 minutes and tickets cost $18/adult and $15/youth.
Then there is the Shandon Hollywood-Rose Hill Homes for the Holidays Tour of Homes from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
“We are an organized group of individuals committed to enriching our communities by promoting volunteerism, highlighting architecture and the holiday décor of homes within two downtown Columbia neighborhoods,” the website says.
Local food, art and culture will be on display.
North Augusta also has a holiday home tour, featuring four homes, the Lookaway Inn and the Arts and Heritage Center. On Friday, there is a candlelight tour from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Saturday it’s from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The Historic District in York will have private homes and Abiding Presence Lutheran Church at 323 North Congress Street decorated for the holidays.
Tickets to tour the homes are $15.
And in Camden, there is the 46th Annual Candlelight Tour of Homes, a self-guided tour “that celebrates the Southern hospitality that Camden and Kershaw County is known for.”
It begins at 3 p.m. Dec. 10 at the Camden Archives & Museum, in downtown Camden, where you can pick up your tour booklet. All sites are open until 9 p.m.
Christmas ballet
As for holiday ballet, Carolina Ballet Theatre performs The Nutcracker Dec. 2-4 in Greenvillle’s Peace Center, The Christmas Angel by the Nova Ballet Theater in Columbia’s Harbison Theater at Midlands Tech and The Nutcracker in Aiken at the Etherredge Center at USC Aiken, both Dec. 16-18.
