2011 Hollywood Christmas Parade

Sunday November 27, 2011 marked the 80th Anniversary of the Hollywood Christmas Parade.  This years parade was hosted by co-hosts Erik Estrada and Laura McKenzie. Both were set up just outside the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard to commentate on all the groups and floats that went through the T.V. area.  The Grand Marshall for the parade was Marie Osmond who has performed on stage, television, film and recording for almost five decades.

Some of the participants in this years parade consisted of bands like the Long Beach Junior Concert Band(LBJCB) and the Santa Ana Winds Youth Band.  There were many celebrities that came down the parade route, for example there was Vivica A. Fox, Metta World Peace aka Ron Artest, and from Disney's "Shake it Up", Kenton Duty.

Drum Major for LBJCB, Ian Wright had a few things to say about the event, "The parade seemed to have a really great turn out this year and everyone seemed to being loving the band as we came down the street."  According to Wright, this year had marked the bands 50th year in the Hollywood Christmas Parade as "the band that leads in Santa."

The parade route that is littered with parade goers and the local LAPD stretches down Hollywood Boulevard to Vine St. and back down Sunset Boulevard towards the staging area for the bands which was located on La Brea Ave. situated between Sunset and Hollywood Blvd.  This 3.5 mile parade route has been the main route for the past couple years despite the several improvements being made to buildings on La Brea and Orange.  In the past the parade was televised on the night of the parade itself by local news media including the more notable KTLA-5 but due to the lack of interest over the years an money that comes out of this parade, the parade is now shown on a delayed taping.  Last year for example, the parade was shown on the Hallmark Channel in mid-December and Christmas.

"It's a shame that the parade never got the national attention like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade did," said Wright when asked if this Hollywood Parade should have national coverage, "I just think that it's Hollywood and that it should be a lot bigger than it currently is."  The parade was broadcasted live from the Hallmark Channel this year and will be broadcasted again by Hallmark on December 12 at 6 p.m. in case anyone had missed the original taping of the event.