There is no longer a holiday parade in Santa Barbara. 70,000 spectators used to line State Street every Christmas season to watch Santa Barbara's only nighttime parade, the annual downtown Santa Barbara Holiday Parade.
This signature event included marching bands, holiday-themed floats, performance groups, local personalities, and of course Santa Claus at the end.
The parade started at 6:30 p.m. around the first Friday night in December. Free to attend, this was a traditional holiday extravaganza.
People started saving spots along State Street during the day, putting down their chairs and blankets, but most show up just in time for the event.
This means that if you arrived an hour early you will likely have no trouble parking or finding a good street side spot.
Though the parade started at 6:30 p.m. it doesn't reach the lower part of State Street until nearly 7 p.m. so if you were running late and don't want to miss anything, people headed south.
Photos by Fritz Olenberger