Country Christmas Lighted Farm Implement Parade

Country Christmas Lighted Farm Implement Parade

First Saturday of December

Yakima Valley, Wash., has taken a conventional tradition—the Christmas parade—and added an interesting twist. The Country Christmas Lighted Farm Implement Parade, which takes place in the town of Sunnyside, showcases as many as 70 farm vehicles decorated with hundreds—sometimes thousands—of lights. Some people consider the parade the premier lighted parade of the U.S. northwest.
An annual event since 1989, the parade has drawn as many as 25,000 spectators and has been covered by the national media. Entries in the ceremony include tractors, combines, grape pickers, semi-trucks with flatbeds, and even horse-drawn floats.
The parade route starts in downtown Sunnyside and goes 1.5 miles through the downtown area across Yakima Valley Highway. Other activities that accompany the celebration are a breakfast with Santa and Christmas caroling.
Participants and spectators value the event because it preserves the tradition of a rural Christmas celebration and promotes the agricultural heritage of the Yakima Valley.

CONTACTS:
Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce
230 E. Edison
P.O. Box 360
Sunnyside, WA 98944
509-837-5939; fax: 509-837-8015
www.sunnysidechamber.com

Celebration days: Dec 3, 2011; Dec 1, 2012; Dec 7, 2013; Dec 6, 2014; Dec 5, 2015