Mountain Brook’s annual Christmas Parade is always a popular way to kick off the holiday season. Families and local residents gathered in Mountain Brook Village on Dec. 3 to enjoy festive floats, music and games.
The parade, organized by the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce, was made up of 30 local organizations, businesses and other groups. These included Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch and the grand marshal, Billy the Kid, a goat who gained local fame for living on the run around Mountain Brook for several days in July before being captured by police.
The presenting sponsor of the event for the last 10 years is Swoop, a children’s toy and clothing store located in Mountain Brook.
Emily Jensen, the executive director for the Mountain Brook Chamber, said they spend all year planning the parade, starting to coordinate details for it right after the previous year’s celebration.
“It is really a collaborative event with our entire city," Jensen said. "We could not do this without the city of Mountain Brook’s support, the police department and the public works team. It really all kind of comes together at the last minute, but it'ss always a lot of fun.”
The parade started at 3 p.m. and lasted about 30 minutes, with snacks, games and activities available for attendees until 4:30 p.m.
Mountain Brook Chamber Vice President of Marketing and Communications Knox Richardson said he was pleased with how the parade went, as this is his first year being involved in planning the event.
“I think [my favorite part is] just being able to spread holiday cheer for all of our residents and residents from neighboring cities and getting to have a good kick off to the holiday season,” Richardson said. “We were very pleased to have such clear [and] sunny weather.”
The parade finished with Santa riding atop a Mountain Brook Fire Department fire truck, after which he sat and took pictures with children and families at the parade.
