Celebrate the Season Parade

The Celebrate the Season Parade is one of the traditional parades held each year in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day; that is, the last Saturday in November. It is one of the first events that rings in the holiday season and airs annually on WPXI.

Parade history

The first parade was held in 1980 and was sponsored by local department store chain Kaufmann's. As of the parade in 2006, Kaufmann's has merged with Macy's, and Macy's has taken over title sponsorship, thus making the parade a smaller sister to the much larger Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade held two days earlier in New York City. WIIC, the local NBC station now known as WPXI, decided to air live coverage of the parade. Its original hosts were Mike Hambrick and Edye Tarbox. David Johnson and Peggy Finnegan took over the hosting duties in 1991. John Fedko, the station's sports director, debuted as a street reporter in 1997, and was joined by a rotating personality from the station every year. Darieth Chisolm joined Fedko for the 2004, 2006 and 2007 parades.

Format

During the two-hour parade, about eighty different acts, local marching bands, floats, balloons, and celebrities take part every year. One of the floats that has appeared in the parade every year is the WPXI float, where some of the station's personalities gather together.

Celebrities

The parade has been popular with some celebrities that grew up in the Pittsburgh area or are nationally renowned. A sampling of some of the celebrities who have taken part:
* Ty Treadway, host of Merv Griffin's Crosswords
* Jimmy McGuire, Taylor Allderdice High School alumnus and Jeopardy! Clue Crew member
* Pat Sajak, host of Wheel of Fortune
* Christina Aguilera
* Pat Boone
* Billy Porter
* Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr.
* Usher
* Bianca Ryan
* Williard Scott
* Ralph Kiner
* Peter Tork
* Povertyneck Hillbillies
* Chubby Checker
* Richard Karn
* Ming Na
* Dan Cortez
* Blair Underwood
* Alex Trebek, host of Jeopardy!
* Bruno Sammartino
* Jim Kelly
* Dwayne Woodruff
* Louis Lipps
* Caroline Rhea
* Mr. McFeely with Purple Panda from Mister Rogers Neighborhood
* Vanessa Campagna
* Mark Milovats
* The Jaggerz
* The Marcels
* Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners

Traditions

As is tradition, Santa Claus is always the last person to appear in the parade.

External links

* [http://www.wpxi.com Official website of WPXI]