Amy Vestal and daughter Abby have been to the Parade of Roses and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But, they say, nothing compares to Lawrence’s Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade.

“We love horses. It’s just such a unique and wonderful parade in our own town,” Amy said. “I’ve never heard of a place having a parade like this other than Lawrence.”

The Vestals joined throngs of people lining both sides of Massachusetts Street, from Seventh to 12th streets, Saturday for the parade, which featured 80 horse-drawn carriages, buggies and wagons clopping down the street, and even a corps of Union blue-clad Buffalo Soldiers. Despite fears that inclement weather would hinder the parade, the rain that drenched much of the region stopped just in time for the parade’s 11 a.m. start.

Lawrence residents Bryant and Vicki Philgreen were happy that severe winter weather held off, even though they wrapped themselves in a blanket for the parade. They staked out a parking spot on Massachusetts Street near Eighth Street at 8 a.m., watching the parade from the trunk of their station wagon.

They tried to see all the parades that march through downtown, including Band Day and the St. Patrick’s Day parades.

“Where else do you find a parade like this?” Vicki said.

“You never know what you’re going to see,” Bryant said, as a nine-horse stagecoach pulled by Clydesdales chugged past.

With an eye to bygone eras, many of the parade’s entrants displayed vintage buggies or carriages that seemed more in place in a Dickens novel than in modern-day Kansas. Several people even dressed in Victorian-era garb.

A number of people celebrated the beginning of the holiday season by adorning their carriages with pine boughs and ribbons, and many horses strutted down the street wearing bells.

Noah Kucza, 8, a third-grader at Prairie Park School, was captivated by the horses.

“I thought it was pretty cool,” he said, adding that the nine-horse rig was his favorite.

Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson was passing out informational pamphlets about the parade and said the event was a unique way for Lawrence to welcome the holidays.

“It’s a great Lawrence tradition, and we’re glad it’s here every year,” he said. “It’s just great that you’ve got beautiful wagons. The horses and wagons and different hitches make it.”