The Dominion Christmas Parade: What you need to know
What takes up over two miles of Broad Street, causes a ruckus with marching bands and baton-twirlers, mixes a giant Rudolph and a huge fruit cake, closes a lot of street, is MC’d by The Grinch, and yet still attracts over 100,000 spectators a year?
Grand Marshaled by The Grinch, our favorite Who-villain, and predictably happening on a beautiful Saturday morning, is the 29th annual Christmas Parade sponsored by Dominion. Be ready for a lot of cheering Christmas fans and enthusiastic Shriners! Santa will be there at the end of the line to double check everyone’s good behavior.
When
Saturday, December 1, 2012; 10:00 AM.
Show up at the Science Museum around 8:45 AM where Offering will play some holiday music to get everyone in the parade-watching, Christmas-loving, cold-weather-enduring spirit. Not a music fan? The we recommended you show up around 9:30 AM, and if you REALLY like sleeping in, come out around 10:30 or 11:00 and camp out at the end of the parade route (see map).
Where
The parade departs from the Science Museum on W. Broad Street and continues east to 7th Street, at the Coliseum.
Best places for viewing: The starting gate at the Science Museum. You can park in the Lowe’s parking lot near the Siegel Center and watch from there.
Parking
- Lowe’s parking lot (1640 W. Broad Street)
- Kroger parking lot (901 N. Lombardy Street)
- Parallel parkers can head over to Grace Street, Franklin Avenue, and further into the neighborhood streets. If you want to try the other side of Broad, there’s always W. Clay Street and E. Marshall Street.
There will be parking restrictions enforced in the area:
- Leigh Street between Hermitage and Myers streets
- E. Leigh Street between 4th and 9th streets
- Broad Street westbound between 8th and Terminal Place
- Broad Street eastbound between 2nd and 5th streets
- Broad Street eastbound between Davis and Strawberry streets
- Grace Street between Strawberry and Davis streets
- Strawberry Street between W. Broad and Grace streets
- Davis Street between W. Broad and Grace streets
- DMV Drive
- Seventh Street between E. Broad and Jackson streets
- Marshall Street between 3rd and 7th streets
Street closings
- The eastbound and westbound lanes of W. Broad Street will be closed to traffic between N. Davis Avenue and Strawberry Street from 5:00 AM – 2:00 PM
- The westbound lanes of W. Broad Street will be closed to traffic from Robinson Street to 8th Street from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
- DMV Drive from Leigh Street to W. Broad Street will be closed from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM
- Leigh Street from Hermitage Road to N. Boulevard will be closed from 7:00 AM – 1:00 PM
- Seventh Street from E. Broad Street to Jackson Street will be closed from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Weather
It’s looking like nice parade-day weather: high of 61 with a 10% chance of rain. Only partly cloudy, so you can look up at the splendor of the balloons.
What to watch for:
- Highlights of this year’s line up include The Grinch as the Grand Marshal, ‘The Game Guy’ from Virginia State Lottery, a Bolivian Dance group, the Wells Fargo stagecoach, the Harlem Globetrotters, a fruitcake balloon by Science Museum to promote their fruitcake science night, and much much more!
- Various street vendors selling plastic shiny things and treats.
- Nutzy’s Funn Runn–a race that has participants start at the Diamond and run the parade route from 7:30 – 9:00 AM.
Working up an appetite
Rejuvenate after the parade and grab a bite to eat at these restaurants. Delicious food = more energy = ability to continue the weekend holiday fun!
- Garnett’s
- Strawberry Street Cafe
- Mint
- Kuba Kuba
- FW Sullivans
- Sidewalk Cafe
- Joe’s Inn
- 3 Monkey’s
- Starlite
- Bellytimber
- Balliceaux
- Sticky Rice
- Metro
- Dixie Donuts
Photo by John Murden
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Scotti Cutlip
Scotti is an aspiring stunt driver, trophy cat mom, and stand-up comedian. But for now she writes and drinks a lot of coffee.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
That’s not right, my favorite Who villain is the Daleks! Oh, wait… ;)
The Camel will be open serving breakfast, hot chocolate, and coffee as well. We have opened the past 5 years for this event, we also will allow anyone who needs to use the facilities to do so. Come in and warm up!
Cheers!
-rand
The Camel
I wouldn’t stress that 10% chance of rain today at all. In fact, the RVANews Weather forecast has a 0% chance of precip for today.
It’s in the low 30s downtown right now, but temperatures will be right around 50 when things kick off at 10. Most of the clouds should be gone in the next couple hours as well.
You CAN NOT park at either Lowes or Kroger parking lots! There are uniformed police officers enforcing a “customers only” policy at each of those locations. I dropped my wife and daughter off there and had to go search for parking on the side streets. I counted no less than a dozen tow-trucks circling the blocks like sharks, but absolutely NO LEGAL place to park. I returned home, and when the parade ends I’ll be picking up my darlings. No parade for me this year! Next year, we’re taking The Bus!!
@Ben I’m sorry about not being able to see it! I got the parking information from someone who works for the Dominion Christmas Parade. :(
@Rand that is GREAT to know, we’ll definitely be able to include that next year!