{"id":64961,"date":"2025-11-30T02:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/64961\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T02:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:08:07","slug":"st-petersburg-ushers-in-the-holidays-with-97th-annual-santa-parade-and-tree-lighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/64961\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg ushers in the holidays with 97th Annual Santa Parade and Tree Lighting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crowds packed downtown on Saturday as performers, families and travelers celebrate a season restored after last year\u2019s hurricane losses.<\/p>\n<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The holiday season officially began in St. Petersburg on Saturday night as a towering Christmas tree lit the skyline and hundreds of people lined downtown streets for the city\u2019s 97th annual Santa Parade and Tree Lighting ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of floats and cars, including several from the city\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stpete.org\/connect_with_us\/directories\/water_resources.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Water Resources Department,<\/a> transformed everyday equipment into festive displays. Along the parade route, performers said the night felt especially meaningful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just a good feeling when you can help people,\u201d said Alexis Schruder with the department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just joyous. Everything is joyous,\u201d added Debbie Grant of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabayfascinators.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Fascinators of Tampa Bay<\/a> dance group.<\/p>\n<p>Grant recalled how last year\u2019s holiday season was marked by devastation from hurricanes Helene and Milton.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVery hard times,\u201d she said. \u201cWe perform a lot down in Gulfport. Gulfport was completely annihilated. Some of our home parades was cancelled down there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year, with clear skies and no weather disruptions, dancers and marching groups filled the streets as daylight faded and lights illuminated the city.<\/p>\n<p>Some spectators traveled far to make the event in the &#8220;St. Nick of time.&#8221; John Mingione and his son, Leo, arrived to the very front of the parade route only moments before it started after driving from the Pittsburgh area back to their home in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA thousand miles. We made a stop overnight. We just got in 30 minutes ago and then made it here,\u201d Mingione said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked what he enjoys most about the season, Mingione said, &#8220;I mean family, presents and the lights. I like lights all over our house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The crowd soon saw plenty of lights of their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>North Straub Park burst into color as the city\u2019s Christmas tree was illuminated for the season, drawing cheers from families gathered beneath its glow.<\/p>\n<p>The city is already looking ahead: St. Petersburg will celebrate the parade\u2019s 100th anniversary in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Those who missed Saturday\u2019s festivities can still tour holiday lights and decorations throughout Straub Park, Pioneer Park and the St. Pete Pier in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crowds packed downtown on Saturday as performers, families and travelers celebrate a season restored after last year\u2019s hurricane&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-64961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}