Lawrence businesses are being asked to pony up for about $5,000 worth of expenses associated with downtown Lawrence’s horse-drawn Christmas parade.

The annual Eldridge Hotel Old Fashioned Christmas Parade will be at 11 a.m. Dec. 7, but for the third year in a row, area businesses are being asked to help defray the costs of the parade to ensure its future survival.

Peach Madl, owner of The Sandbar, is leading the donation drive, and she’s telling businesses it is a good investment because of the additional people the parade attracts to the downtown area.

“It is really a very good event for Lawrence tourism,” Madl said. “It brings several thousand people to downtown, and it is just a great kickoff for holiday shopping. I think it puts people in the mood to shop.”

Madl said for the past five years the parade, which runs on Massachusetts Street from Seventh to 11th streets, has never failed to draw fewer than 100 entrants. She said she expected at least that many horse-drawn carriages and wagons this year.

Three years ago Madl and a handful of other area business owners got together to create the fund-raising drive after learning Rob Phillips, general manager of the Eldridge Hotel, said he was going to discontinue the parade because of the mounting costs.

At the time, Phillips said the hotel’s cost to donate rooms to the participants had grown too high.

Phillips said the free hotel rooms were an important way to attract participants to the parade because most already had to spend upwards of $100 to haul their horses to Lawrence. Because of the time of the parade, most participants must arrive Friday evening.

Organizers are seeking donations to cover expenses for this year's annual Eldridge Hotel Old Fashioned Christmas Parade. The parade has become a tradition that downtown businesses would like to continue. The parade features horse-drawn carriages like the one drove by Sam and Marc Harris in a 1999 parade.

“After we heard the parade was going to be discontinued, some of us just went to him and said what can we do to help, and this is what we came up with,” Madl said.

Last year 44 businesses and organizations bought a parade sponsorship. Madl said she’d like to add about 20 more sponsors this year but isn’t sure whether that will be possible with the sluggish economy. She said the group needed to raise at least $5,000 to cover basic expenses.

Each sponsorship costs $175 and provides every parade participant with a Lawrence hotel room on Friday night, and it goes to pay for a Friday evening chili supper and dance for all parade entrants.

Businesses will have their name placed on one of the carriages and will be invited to the chili supper and dance, in addition to having the opportunity to ride in the parade.

To donate to the event, send a check to Friends of the Christmas Parade, c/o The Sandbar, 17 E. Eighth St., Lawrence 66044