The Hartsville community’s greatest holiday tradition will arrive next Saturday, Dec. 12 as the Hartsville Christmas Parade rolls onto South Fifth Street with more than 50 schools, churches, businesses, and other local organizations. The 2015 parade, sponsored by SPC Credit Union, North Industrial Machine and Sonoco, will step off at 10:30 a.m.
This incredible community spectacle, which also celebrates Hartsville’s first responders, marching bands, dance groups, elected officials and local Shriners organizations, will feature the JROTC cadets of Hartsville High School serving as color guard, as well as Santa Claus riding along with the Hartsville Fire Department.
“It will be a busy day in Hartsville,” Jessica Cohen, Tourism and Special Events Director, said. “The Christmas parade is undeniably the most unifying community event we have and has been a tradition for years.”
The parade is taking place during the same time that the Hartsville Farmers Market is happening on East Carolina Avenue from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and as a result the parade participants will follow a slightly different route than in previous years. The parade will leave from the Newsome Warehouse parking lot near 670 S. Fifth St. and proceed north on South Fifth Street. The parade will turn right onto Laurens Avenue, just before Applebee’s, and turn left onto South Fourth Street past the Fairfield Inn. The parade will continue on Fourth Street, past the Hartsville Farmers Market on East Carolina Avenue, and will turn left two blocks later onto East Home Avenue. The route will then turn left again onto North Fifth Street, alongside the Hartsville Museum, and right onto West Carolina Avenue. It will then end at Thornwell School for the Arts, 437 W. Carolina Ave.
The parking lot at the Newsome Warehouse lineup site will admit only vehicles and floats participating in the parade. Individuals participating in the parade should be dropped off only in the adjacent shopping center lot, closer to Hartsville Crossing Boulevard, and should not be let out along Fifth Street. When floats arrive at the parade dispersal site at Thornwell School for the Arts, drivers are asked to allow riders to unload and then return the floats to the Newsome Warehouse site for breakdown, helping prevent stoppages in the parade flow. Parade units are also asked to make sure that any candy given out along the route is not thrown from vehicles, but is rather handed out by those walking in the parade.
The 2015 parade will also offer a float competition for the categories of Most Holiday Cheer and Most Creative. Winners in each of these categories will be selected by a panel during the parade and will receive free entry in the 2016 Hartsville Christmas Parade.
For more information, contact 843.917.0602 or 843.858.1225.