Houston’s Thanksgiving Parade

The last time I went to a parade was probably when I was around 10 years old and it was a Faschingszug in Kronberg, one of the better parades to celebrate the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in the part of Germany where I grew up.  In the US, many cities put on parades on Thanksgiving.  The New York one is sponsored by Macy’s , the Houston one by HEB (a Texan supermarket chain).

The parade took about an hour to pass the spot I picked to watch it from.  I have grouped my photos of the paraders together by theme rather than in the order in which they walked, danced, marched or rode past me.

I’ll start with the sports teams who call Houston their home, including the Tailgaters.  For the uninitiated, tailgating is partying in the car park at an American Football stadium.  You need a ticket to get into the car park, but rather than go to their seats, tailgaters get out portable BBQs and grill food, drink beer and enjoy the game from inside the stadium grounds, albeit not actually inside the stadium.

Cheerleaders for the Houston Texans, the American Football team

Houston Dynamos – our soccer team

Texans Tailgaters

Orbit – mascot for the Houston Astros (baseball)

Not sure which sport he referees for, I am not familiar with the local Roller Derby teams

Basketball team the Houston Rockets let their mascot travel on a segway

The next grouping is the marching bands.  I was amazed by their size – one had 15 saxophone players in it!  I’m including pictures of the local members of the Universal Cheerleader’s Association in this segment too

This band had two conductors, one at the front, one in the middle

Texas Southern University Marching Band

Arriving at the performance spot

UCA performing – facing the other side of the street unfortunately

A friend lives near Stephen F Austin High School and has heard this band practice

Hold it high!

Not sure which group was bigger – the drill ‘dancers’ or the marching band

being followed by an enormous candy cane!

I suspect there are marching bands in all Thanksgiving Parades, here are a few paraders you would probably only find in Houston

I missed the Art Car Parade this year, reblogged Ron’s posts instead

Wasn’t going to miss that last spring

Ok, there will be other urban farms

reproducing Montrose street art while mixing good tunes

Mounted Houston PD in fancy dress for Christmas

Harris County Sheriffs

This year, Thanksgiving fell on the same day as the first day of Chanukah celebrations.  The local Chabad had a float bringing the lesson of Chanukah to all us gentiles.

And lastly some interesting vehicles.

Happy Thanksgiving to y’all!