'A Very Merry Main Street' Christmas parade returned to downtown Lafayette

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The holiday season kicked off in the Greater Lafayette area Saturday with the longest-running Christmas parade in Indiana winding through downtown.

The "A Very Merry Main Street” parade festivities came two years after the last parade was held.

With the 2020 event canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of Lafayette and West Lafayette citizens came out to enjoy its return.

"I'm excited for the grandkids," Natalie Garrett, a life-long Lafayette citizen, said. "I'd come to this when I was a kid and for as long as I can remember. Now that we have grandkids, it's fun to watch them."

The annual Christmas parade traveled onto Main Street from 11th to 2nd streets. Surrounding roads were closed leading up to and throughout the parade.

Over 120 floats and vehicles participated in the parade with local businesses and law enforcement taking part in the festivities. The Hanna Community Center, United way of Greater Lafayette and even the Service Sanitation's "Jingle Johns" all made appearances.

"We come every year possible," Kayla Abdulrazzaq, a Lafayette citizen watching the parade with her family, told the Journal & Courier, "and we like to see the bands and the lights. We think its kind of cool to see what the different schools have to offer."

Cooler weather and closed roads didn't stop hundreds of local citizens from coming out and enjoying A Very Merry Main Street. Kids and adults of all ages enjoyed festively decorated floats and vehicles. Some floats portrayed nativity scenes and other decorated cars held local public figures, such as Indiana State Rep. Sheila Klinker and the Tippecanoe County commissioners Thomas Murtaugh, David Byers and Tracy Brown.

Of course, kids enjoyed appearances from the Grinch, some of their favorite Disney characters, such as Belle and Tinker Bell, as well as Santa Claus himself. Free candy handed out by passing parade parties, families of children and their four-legged friends and all the holiday decorations highlighted "A Very Merry Main Street" for Greater Lafayette families.

Margaret Christopherson is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email her at mtroup@jconline.com and follow her on Twitter @MargaretJC2

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: 'A Very Merry Main Street' paraded through downtown Lafayette