WLOY has been a part of the Mayor’s Annual Christmas Parade in Hampden since 2010 when we were invited to enter. We naturally assumed this meant we needed a float so we built one. Unlike all the other media that entered the parade with their generic vans, we got a bit serious… We have lots of photos from the various years but below are links to the official ones on the parade’s website. Perhaps the best result was when the parade was up for US Today’s 10 Best Holiday Parades in the US award. The featured image used worldwide was our very own float with Hillary tossing out fuzzy snowballs to the kids lining the sidewalks. We were pretty overwhelmed to see that as the photo used as it was a complete surprise! The parade is coming back this year (December 2nd, 1:00pm) and runs from Falls Rd & Cold Spring Lane along Falls Road South to 38th Street where it turns East and runs to Chestnut, turning North and ending. Join the fun (and 20,000 friends) and say hi to WLOY. Who knows what this year’s theme will be?? Read on for the image gallery!
2010 – Santa’s sleigh full of gifts with flamingos pulling and reindeer riding
Christa, Tim & Amanda with the van
2011 – We added the kids from our What Happens Next? radio show to the troupe
WHN Kids plus Anthony, Molly, Alex, Joe, Amanda, Kait
The big kids carry the sign – Anthony, Kate, Joe, Amanda, Billy, Eric, Bobby
The van, holding up traffic as usual
2012 – We go all in, with Hillary as Santa on the roof and Ravens & Orioles helping pull the sleigh
Hillary throwing stuffed snowballs to the kids
At least she doesn’t look too nervous
Nikky, Kait and Alex surround the van with Hillary caught mid throw
Nikky & Kait not yet seeing the weird sock puppet behind them…
2013 – We turned the top of the van into a snow globe with Sam inside throwing snow around
No parade – first snow cancellation ever. The next week WLOY made it’s now parade, building the float (a giant snow globe with Sam sitting inside!) and parking in Hampden for 2 hours playing music, getting photographed and having fun!
2014 – The whole top of the van was a giant Santa hat, with a helium-filled tip to float behind us, the front had a “boh” cowlick, eye and mustache to keep it nice and local
2015 – The hat was so good we had to repeat
Katie, Gordon, Allie, Marge, Nora, Brendan, Molly?, Joanna
2016 – Santa at the beach with a surfing gingerbread man, swimming Santa and everyone in Hawaiian shirts
Cara, Steve and a very jealous JackFM van looking lame behind our float
2017 – Disco Santa! DJ Paul Random on the roof spinning the tunes and everyone in ABBA disco wear
Our lame disco ball (so much work!) with DJ Santa on the roof
2018 – ???? BE THERE!
Post-Parade Update:
Snoopy was a massive hit
Why don’t we get awards for this?
Yes, Snoopy did steal his kids iPad for the parade
Seriously the biggest hit float we’ve done yet – look for it to return!!