HENDERSON, Texas — The Christmas parade season is still underway across the many towns within the Piney Woods. For the city of Henderson, they had to reschedule their celebration from last Thursday because of inclement weather.
Instead of letting it rain on their parade, residents were able to finally get into the holiday spirit as many families took part in the annual event Tuesday night.
Before the marching bands and floats, Henderson residents took a moment to recognize two families that lost their loved ones. The families of the late Henderson High School graduate 18-year-old Johnathan Holland and 10-year-old Northside Intermediate School student Addison Shepherd were there to light the city tree in their honor.
After the tree lighting, the parade was underway with various floats of kids celebrating on a tropical island showing Henderson Lion spirit or the local Shriners buzzing around the street in their small cars.
For local great-grandma Betty Thornley, she said bringing her grandchildren and great-grandchildren to this parade is a sentimental moment for her.
"Hopefully later on in their lives they can look back on the pictures that were taken and they can remember us and that we were here with them," Thornley said.
The parade was full of families on floats and watching from the sidewalk and cheering them on. Henderson resident Corey Fletcher said he brought his family out to the event so his 2-year-old son could experience it.
"Oh man, it's awesome to see everybody as a town come together and celebrate Christmas because it's that time of year," Fletcher said.
The nearly 80 float entries were ready to show off after having to reschedule. According to Henderson Mayor Buzz Fullen, no one complained about the complications.
"They were just glad to hear us actually have a date so we can go ahead and have the parade," Fullen said. "We'll probably have maybe a larger crowd at this parade than we did because more people know about it."