The St. Augustine Christmas Parade

This Midwestern girl could not help but think of Irving Berlin's famous song, White Christmas, as I sat outside under the palm trees and watched the St. Augustine Christmas parade go by.

The sun is shining, the grass is green
The orange and palm trees sway
There's never been such a day
In Beverly Hills, L.A
But it's December the twenty-fourth
And I am longing to be up North
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!

I've never attended a Christmas parade in Indiana where it wasn't chilly and maybe with an early snow on the ground! Sitting in a lawn chair, with no jacket on, no hot chocolate to keep me warm, and surrounded by palm trees was not something I had ever experienced before. 

Kyle, me, Corinne, Whitney, Braden, Addie, Ashley, and Melissa. And palm trees. Lots of them.

Corinne and Addie were marching in the parade along with their dance studio. They are carrying the banner and with their arms up waving at me.

The parade was held in the historic district of St. Augustine and right by the Castillo de San Marcos. You can see it in the background.

When we arrived, we'd driven past the staging grounds for the parade and I had seen a lot of horse trailers, so I was hoping that I would see a lot of equine entries. The first one came very early in the parade.

This pony pulling the cart reminded me of Jennifer Buxton's blog post about Franceyn Dare's  Cookie and Sugarplum.

Some of the entries did not have any banners to identify them. This was one of them.

Virgil's Trojan horse from The Aenid was represented. Never thought I'd see the Trojan horse in a Christmas parade!

 Despite the numerous trailers on the staging grounds, there were not that many horses in the parade.

 Most did not carry any identification about their group or why they were participating in the parade.

Surprisingly, many of the horses were not shod. 

 I laughed when I saw this photo. The horse's tail looks like it is full of static electricity but that's actually a small palm tree juxtaposed behind it.

 My favorite horse in the parade - that coloring is gorgeous!

 See the Belgian? 

 I was glad to see a helmet on the young girl - I was surprised that most riders did not wear one.  

 There was only one horse in the parade that was acting up (far left.)

 Someone on foot was walking beside it and helped keep it moving forward when it became upset.

Another horse drawn wagon, the last equine entry in the parade. 

After an hour and a half, the parade ended and we wandered the streets of the historic district for a while.

I snapped a couple of photos of some horse-themed businesses as we walked around. (Want ice cream? Head to St. Augustine. Never have I seen so many ice cream shops clustered together!)

The Lafayette Christmas Parade was held the same day, and the weather conditions were much different from those in Florida. While I missed seeing my own community's parade, still it was nice to be warm and not have to fight snow and ice to view it!