photo by: Mike Yoder

Toys for Tots representatives ride along as the Dunn’s Landing stagecoach from Wellsville rolls down Massachusetts Street in the 26th annual Lawrence Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018, in downtown Lawrence.

Grab an extra bag of oats. The Lawrence tradition of a horse-drawn Christmas parade is returning after a year off, and the horses will be traveling a couple of extra blocks this year.

The organizers of downtown’s Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade announced that the event will return at 11 a.m. on Dec. 4 after having been canceled last year because of COVID concerns.

“We already have had quite a few entries from people who say they are coming back to be in the parade,” said Marty Kennedy, an organizer of the parade.

But this year the parade will travel along Massachusetts Street from Seventh Street to 15th Street. That’s two more blocks than normal, as the parade usually veers off Massachusetts at 13th Street. Kennedy said the change was made for some logistical reasons, but it also allows people to spread out more to watch the parade.

In addition, parade organizers are adding quite a bit of bleacher seating in South Park, which has frontage along both sides of Massachusetts Street. Kennedy said providing more seating for parade-watchers likely would be important because there are fewer available parking spaces on Massachusetts Street. Several parking stalls were converted to outdoor dining areas during the pandemic. In years past, many parade-watchers simply parked their cars and lawn chairs in downtown parking spots to see the parade.

The next parade will be the 28th edition of the event, which really is old-fashioned in the sense that there are no motorized entries in the parade. But there are plenty of people who motor into town to see the event. The parade, always the first Saturday of December, is generally considered one of the busiest days of the year in downtown Lawrence. Most years the parade route has several thousand spectators.

Kennedy said the event also was a big deal for the owners of the horses and antique wagons that participate in the parade. The committee for the nonprofit parade does fundraising leading up to the event to pay for a hotel room, a meal and other such costs for those who are participating in the parade.

“We had a few comments from people disappointed about the cancellation last year, but they understood that COVID really knocked everything out. But they are eager for it to get started again,” Kennedy said.

“They love it. A lot of them use it to start their Christmas holiday season.”

If you want an even earlier start to that season, you can get a sneak peak of the parade early next month. On Sept. 9 — the new date for the Downtown Lawrence Sidewalk Sale — area resident Robin Dunn will take her “Christmas Parade Stage Coach,” pulled by a team of Percheron horses, down Massachusetts Street at noon.

“We want to promote that we are back,” Kennedy said.