This year’s theme is “North Pole Christmas Party.” The day-long festival will also honor two legendary hometown figures – Grand Marshal Dane Dunning, a Clay High graduate and 2023 World Series Championship pitcher with the Texas Rangers and Special Honoree and recently retired City Manager Steve Kennedy. 

Sure, the Christmas Parade is the second-largest event in the city, only behind the Clay County Agricultural Fair. Still, it only caps a day filled with holiday festivities that start 8½ hours earlier with face-painting and shopping at Santa’s Village on Walnut Street, and the Children’s Market on Magnolia Avenue at 10 a.m. 

That’s followed at 11 a.m. by the Jingle Bell One-Mile Fun Run in Spring Park. The starting line is near the picnic area under the Florida Striders Track Club Flags. All runners will receive jingle bells and candy canes. 

Santa will leave his workshop and arrive at the Spring Park pool pavilion at 3 p.m. Organized by Elks Lodge No. 1892, Saint Nick will stay until 5:30 p.m. to take photos and listen to children’s holiday wishes. Families also can enjoy a large selection of food trucks along the eastern side of Walnut Street – all while listening to live music at the bandshell from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

Meanwhile, across Orange Avenue, the Historic Houses Christmas Tour will be from noon to 4 p.m. The Green Cove Springs Preservation Society hosts this event as a self-guided tour through historic locations throughout the city, including decorated churches, restored homes and local stores. 

The cost is $5 a person, and the event is free for those 13 and younger. Maps and passes are available at the Village Improvement Association, 17 N. Palmetto Ave. 

Then comes the grand finales of the festival – the parade, the lighting of the city’s Christmas tree and the Parade of Trees in Spring Park. 

Last year’s attendance was estimated to be 10,000. To handle the influx of residents and visitors who will line both sides of Orange Avenue from Houston to Walnut streets, the Green Cove Springs Police Department will close Orange Avenue (U.S. Highway 17) at 5 p.m. at Ferris Street to the south and Governors Circle to the north. Southbound traffic will be detoured onto County Road 315 to State Road 16. Northbound traffic on U.S. 17 will be sent west on SR 16 to CR 315. Traffic on North Cypress and Pine avenues within the city will be limited to southbound only. 

More than 80 parade floats, vehicles and groups will organize near the Clay County Courthouse and proceed south along Orange Avenue before making a U-turn at Walnut Street and returning northbound on Walnut to the Courthouse. That way, although they will be lined up five and six rows deep on both sides of the divided roadway, everyone will get an up-close view of each float. 

Dunning and his older brother Jake are part of Major League Baseball history. They are a set of only nine brothers who’ve won a World Series Championship. Jake won as a pitcher with the San Francisco Giants in 2014. 

At 8 p.m., much of the crowd will converge in Spring Park for the lighting of the Christmas Tree and a stroll around Spring Park to see the 245 decorated Christmas trees as part of the Parade of Trees. 

The festivities will conclude with the parade awards ceremony. The best-decorated vehicle, school or scout group, marching band, float, and best use of theme will be honored.