Hsm Cast at Hollywood Santa Parade!

the cast from High School Musical will help lead the annual Hollywood Santa Parade. This Christmas parade will definitely take place on Nov. 25, 2007, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The parade won't get live broadcast TV coverage this year. But if you have cable, you can find it on CityView Channel 35, and later, KTLA (Channel 5) will broadcast the parade at noon on Dec. 16.heres more info!

Update - 10/16/07: Flash! This just in the Christmas Parade has been saved!

Although the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gave up on the parade, the Los Angeles City Council voted to sponsor the holiday event.

The name has been changed to the "Hollywood Santa Parade" (sort of a throwback to the early days when it was the "Santa Claus Lane Parade") because the Hollywood CoC owns the "Hollywood Christmas Parade" name. They haven't yet named a grand marshall, and I don't know yet if the route will stay the same, but the Christmas parade will definitely take place on Nov. 25, 2007, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The Grand Marshal for the 2007 parade will be Bob Barker ("The Price is Right"), and other celebs on hand will include the cast from the popular "High School Musical". The parade route will be the same as before.

The parade won't get live broadcast TV coverage this year. But if you have cable, you can find it on CityView Channel 35, and later, KTLA (Channel 5) will broadcast the parade at noon on Dec. 16.

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Previous update - 3/21/07: Bad news. On March 21, 2007, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which staged the Christmas Parade each year, announced that there would never be another Hollywood Christmas Parade. The 2007 parade has been canceled.

The Christmas parade costs about a million dollars to stage, and because of a lack of sponsors and ad revenue, they lost $100,000 on the 2006 parade, and projections indicated that losses would be double that if a 2007 parade were held - so they canceled the 2007 parade, and announced "We're disappointed and sad. But we're out of the parade business."

A week later, a guy dressed like Santa Claus and a small, ragtag group of supporters marched down Hollywood Blvd protesting the end of the parade, and trying to encourage the city to save the event. Greg Durfee said his campaign would focus on finding major sponsors willing to underwrite the parade, preferably for a 10-year period. "We're not taking any donations" he said, "We want people to e-mail companies like Coca-Cola and Paramount Pictures. He is planning to hold a rally in May, and asked that supporters e-mail savetheparade@yahoo.com for details.

I will leave this page up for anyone who wants to read about the 75-year history of the parade. And I will update this page if there are any major developments. But bear in mind that the article below was written when the parade was still being held as an annual event, before it was canceled. As of this writing, the Hollywood Christmas Parade is no more.