{"id":2188514,"date":"2025-12-05T20:33:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T20:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2188514"},"modified":"2025-12-05T20:33:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T20:33:06","slug":"gainesville-florida-christmas-and-holiday-parade-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/gainesville-florida-christmas-and-holiday-parade-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Gainesville Florida Christmas and Holiday parade 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The city of Gainesville will kick off the winter holiday season on Dec. 6 with its 3rd annual “A Very GNV Holiday Parade.”<\/p>\n\n

This year\u2019s parade, which runs from noon to 1 p.m., will celebrate Gainesville\u2019s \u201chomegrown talent\u201d highlighting the city\u2019s vibrant arts, culture and dance scene. It will feature over 100 themed floats, dance troupes, local marching bands and community groups.<\/p>\n

City Commissioner Cynthia Moore\u00a0Chestnut led the effort to establish the parade in 2023 after discovering Gainesville hadn\u2019t hosted one in 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response was overwhelming \u2026 people were very excited about it,\u201d she said. \u201cI get comments all the time, really, starting in the summer, people asking, \u2018When can we sign up?\u2019 \u2018When\u2019s the parade?\u2019 \u2018How can I be in the parade?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Scenes from 2024: <\/strong>Check out photos from A Very GNV Holiday Parade<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Gainesville natives Marion J. Caffey, theatrical producer and director best known for his work on Broadway and television, and award-winning saxophonist Emmanuel Garilus will lead the parade as co-grand marshals.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m deeply honored to return to Gainesville as a grand marshal,\u201d Caffey said in a press release. \u201cThe arts gave me direction and purpose as a young person. My first show as an actor was at Gainesville Community Playhouse. Seeing how this city now invests in its youth through creativity and education is just fantastic and being part of that is a goal of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Garilus earned the opportunity to perform at New York City\u2019s Apollo Theater after winning Gainesville\u2019s Apollo Theater Youth Talent Search. Caffey served as artistic director of the search which was organized by the city\u2019s One Nation One Project Gainesville, the local arm of a national initiative promoting community health and well-being through culture and the arts. He was the first saxophonist to take home the Apollo\u2019s Amateur Night<\/a> grand prize in 2025.<\/p>\n

Holiday fun: <\/strong>Tree lightings, parades, markets on tap this holiday season in Gainesville and beyond<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo appear as a grand marshal with the people who lifted me up is a reminder that every note, every act of kindness, every piece of art can change a life,\u201d Garilus said in a press release. \u201cThis moment isn\u2019t just about gratitude \u2014 it\u2019s about purpose. I\u2019m honored to celebrate what\u2019s possible when faith, discipline and community come together through the arts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Past grand marshals include basketball star Shaquille O\u2019Neal and former UF football coach Steve Spurrier.<\/p>\n

The Manhood Youth Development Foundation, a program that provides a support system to young Black men, Dazzling Black Hat Divas sorority and Latino Women\u2019s League are just some of the groups that will take part in this year\u2019s parade. Adding to the fun, the Humane Society of North Central Florida and Hearts of Gold Therapy Dogs will bring their furry friends and are sure to delight young parade-goers.<\/p>\n

The parade will also feature a special appearance by the Star Center Theatre, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Kauffman, the city\u2019s historic preservation officer and director of this year\u2019s parade, organized the Junior Orange Bowl parade in Miami for years before moving to Gainesville and is excited to be involved in showcasing what the city\u2019s community has to offer.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cUF does a great homecoming parade, but that really is geared to the UF clubs and organizations,\u201d she said. This parade is really meant to feature local community organizations that may not always have a chance to march in a parade \u2026 everybody loves it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parade will start at the intersection of West University Avenue and West Sixth Street and end near the Alachua County Public Schools Administration Building at 620 E. University Ave.<\/p>\n

Families are encouraged to stick around after the parade and join DJ E-LO at Bo Diddley Plaza for a free holiday kids\u2019 dance party from 1 to 3 p.m. and the city\u2019s annual holiday lights celebration at the Historic Thomas Center from 5 to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.gainesville.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The city of Gainesville will kick off the winter holiday season on Dec. 6 with its 3rd annual “A Very GNV Holiday Parade.” This year\u2019s parade, which runs from noon to 1 p.m., will celebrate Gainesville\u2019s \u201chomegrown talent\u201d highlighting the city\u2019s vibrant arts, culture and dance scene. It will feature over 100 themed floats, dance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2188515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[30218,22220,284334,22034,239348,116640,22373,350154,239372,239374,51971,345132,345135,25632,239349,339770,24392,21739,22764,345133,21738,422312,28774,239343,239347,306684,347962,23471,23759,147314,69477,422311,349705,422313,313102,422314,23152,284335,239344,24098,244307],"class_list":["post-2188514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ai","tag-arts","tag-enabled","tag-events","tag-events-u0026-listings","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-gainesville","tag-geographic","tag-geographic-reference","tag-highlights","tag-holiday","tag-holiday-marketplace-hub","tag-holidays","tag-holidays-u0026-seasonal-events","tag-hub","tag-listings","tag-local","tag-local-news","tag-marketplace","tag-news","tag-oneal","tag-of","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-parades","tag-performing","tag-performing-arts","tag-positive","tag-reference","tag-seasonal","tag-shaquille","tag-shaquille-oneal","tag-spurrier","tag-steve","tag-steve-spurrier","tag-story","tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-u0026","tag-university","tag-university-of-florida"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Gainesville-Florida-Christmas-and-Holiday-parade-2025.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2188516,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188514\/revisions\/2188516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}