New Route: Don’t Rain on Cherryville’s Christmas Parade

By: Grace Smith – Wise News Network

CHERRYVILLE, NC (WNN) – In the western piedmont of North Carolina white Christmases are rare while wet Christmases are abundant. Rain poured down on the attendees of the Cherryville Christmas parade, but that didn’t halt attendance. 

The Cherryville Christmas Parade occurred on Saturday, December 9, 2023. The parade highlighted various local businesses and organizations. Hundreds of participants lined up preparing to spread Christmas cheer to the crowd.

The procession began at Mulberry and Main Street, right inside of the historic downtown area and headed eastward. This route differs from years past, where parade participants would line up on Main and Depot Street before making their way westward down Main Street.

Several factors played into changing the parade route. Mary Beth Tackett, the director of the Cherryville Chamber of Commerce, provided a written statement addressing how this change impacted the parade. 

“The primary motivation behind these changes was to address safety concerns stemming from previous years,” said Tackett in the written statement. 

She referred to several safety concerns from the previous years’ route, including the fact that it went over an active CSX railroad track. Additionally, Main Street’s growing popularity presented some challenges regarding road closures. 

“With Main Street becoming increasingly busy each year, temporarily closing one of the busiest roads from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. presented a considerable challenge,” said Tackett.

The new route avoided any major road closures, aside from Main Street from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Although many of the safety concerns were remedied by the change, certain challenges persisted in the past. 

“Despite long-standing requests for parade participants to avoid stopping in front of First Baptist Church, especially for children disembarking from floats while still in motion on an open road, this issue persisted,” said Tackett.

The new route did not affect the number of attendees, however, the rain had a slight impact on the crowd’s enthusiasm. Attendees of the Very Cherry Who-Ville event, which took place on December 1, 2023, also experienced rain. 

However, despite the inclement weather, the combination of both events amassed approximately 5,000 eventgoers. Mayor H.L. Beam announced this statistic at the Cherryville City Council meeting on Monday, December 11, 2023. 

“Who-Ville and the Annual Christmas Parade both were big successes for our city, the downtown merchants were pleased with the events and the business they produced,” said Mayor Beam at the meeting. 

Overall, the introduction to the new parade route went successfully, and attendees had fun despite the weather. 

“This event attracted one of the largest crowds we’ve seen to date, We appreciated how the new route expanded the viewing area, extending from Mulberry Street all the way down to Cherry Street,” said Tackett.

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