The 39th annual Morgan Hill Holiday Parade, organized by the local Kiwanis Club, drew hundreds of residents and visitors to the city’s downtown Dec. 6 to watch dozens of floats decorated in dazzling illuminated displays traverse Monterey Road in technicolor splendor.
The hour-long parade offered attendees a view of myriad facets of life in the local community. Firefighters and police waved to the crowds as marching bands from both Live Oak and Sobrato High Schools filled the night with music. Dancers and martial arts students from local studios performed acrobatic stunts in the streets while cast in the multicolored brilliance of Christmas lights that line the downtown strip.
Representatives from countless local businesses and community organizations joined the procession, each adding their own flash of color and spirit to the parade.
The festivities culminated at the Community & Cultural Center, where spectators who persevered through a half-hour delay in frigid temperatures were rewarded with the city’s ceremonial lighting of a towering Christmas tree at the corner of Monterey Road and Dunne Avenue. The Morgan Hill Downtown Association donated the tree.
“This is one of the best events that we do here in Morgan Hill,” Mayor Mark Turner told the crowd before the lighting ceremony. “We are so thrilled about the opportunity that we have to celebrate our holidays the way we do here in Morgan Hill like no other city does.”
After the tree blazed to life, families lined up to board the Magic Ship of Christmas, a nautical-themed float operated by Scout troops 799 and 2799, parked in front of the CCC. Inside, children climbed aboard to meet Santa Claus, concluding the evening of festivities.
