There is no better example of The Greater Salt Lake City’s love of the holiday season and celebration of it than the Ogden Parade. We all attended it on our final night together in the area to celebrate the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays. This traditional parade was the 59th celebration of the local Christmas spirit and the official beginning of the Christmas holiday season here. Last year COVID made it impossible to celebrate, so this year’s parade had to make up for it and did. The family-oriented crowd largely did not stay around for the fireworks display that followed the parade, which was consistently old-fashioned and fun.
The crowd began gathering before five pm near the end of the parade route on Ogden’s historic 25th Street. After it started, vehicles and holiday symbols passed in front of us for almost an hour after the parade finally began after dark about 6 pm. Candy was thrown and collected. Snowmen cavorted. Floats and colorfully lighted vehicles passed in front of us for the entire time of the actual parade.
On the way to Ogden, which is north of Salt Lake City, we stopped for candy and ice cream treats at Mrs. Cavanaugh’s. The Mindy Mint ice cream and sugar-free chocolate candy were especially popular. Because we stopped, there was no time left to visit Ogden’s burgeoning tourist attractions that include historic Union Station with several things inside to experience. We had to content ourselves with 25th Street and the gathering parade crowd.
We were lucky. The normal 300 to 400 inches of snow that the ski resorts east of Ogden get annually had yet to fall. In fact, most of the ski communities like Park City had signs up that begged for snow. Snow is usually a post holiday phenomenon here, so the streets of Ogden were still snow-free and parade-ready.
Memories of childhood holiday celebrations surrounded by family was a warm and comforting reality this year.
Hank
treet
Security Conscious 