Carriage Parade

Historic Lebanon, Ohio holds an annual horse-drawn carriage Christmas parade. It's always held the first Saturday in December. We didn't know a whole lot more than that when we made the decision to go visit Lebanon and catch the evening parade. (There's also an afternoon parade.)

Uncle Josh, Aunt Angie and the boys were in town, and we bundled up, braved the snowy roads, and drove over to Lebanon. Arriving about an hour early, we, of course, found the food!

All the local shops and businesses were open along the main downtown area, and there was every type of food vendor there that you could think of. I was amazed at how crowded it was considering the bitter cold (temperatures in the teens).

Adam warming up in the jam shop.

We could tell the other spectators had previous experience preparing parade-viewing plans -- with chairs set along the route to reserve their place, plenty of blankets, tarps to cover the snowy curbs and snacks and hot chocolate. That may be us, too, some year, but this year we were just checking everything out.

We found a spot along a local market to await and watch the parade. There were all shapes and sizes of carts and wagons (and horses!). Most were just decorated with lights but some had Santa or the Grinch or reindeer ears on the horses.

The Grinch and Cindy Lou-Who

This one had the Grinch in jail.

My favorites were the clydesdale horses, especially with a full 6 horses reined together with bells to pull the wagons, but Adam loved the miniature horses prancing down the roads.

While I loved the night parade with all the carriages lit up with Christmas lights, I think next time I'd like to check out the afternoon parade. Just watching this slideshow below shows all the detailed costumes and themes that we missed in the dark.

Combined with family and Christmas shopping, this was a great way to cap off a fun-filled holiday weekend. Maybe this will become an annual tradition for us, too!