Pevely-Herculaneum Parade draws well despite temperatures in 20s

The Pevely-Herculaneum Christmas Parade went off as planned Dec. 5 despite frigid temperatures in the 20s a year after municipal officials canceled the event due to weather concerns.

Herculaneum Mayor Ryan Wright said the 2024 version of the holiday parade went off only after officials considered another cancellation.

“There was talk of canceling the parade because of the cold,” Wright said. “But, we didn’t because we didn’t want to disappoint people.

“It was my first one (as Herculaneum mayor) because last year’s was canceled. I think it went really well.”

Wright said that at least there was no precipitation.

“It didn’t rain or snow,” he said.

He said parade participants obviously put in a great deal of time in decorating their floats and vehicles. This year’s parade theme was “Hometown Christmas.”

“I was surprised at how decorated the floats were,” Wright said.

Linda Miles, a parade organizer and Pevely’s deputy city clerk, noted that many people braved the cold to view the parade as it went by in a path from William C. Haggard City Park in Herculaneum and north along Commercial Boulevard (Hwy. 61-67) to its conclusion at the intersection of Main Street and Joachim Avenue in Pevely.

“I was concerned because the weather got considerably colder,” Miles said. “I’m going to say there were hundreds of people at the parade. It was probably a lighter crowd because of the weather, but it was better than I had expected.”

She acknowledged that the weather affected the number of parade participating units, which included floats, vehicles and marchers.

“I’d say we had about 50 (units),” Miles said. “We had several cancellations due to weather – floats with animals or with kids canceled.”

She said parade officials gave out three awards to parade participants. The winners were: first, Toys for Tots; second, Nissan; third, Helping Hands.

“I think everything went really well,” Miles said. “It seemed like people were excited. The kids were excited.”