With the holiday season underway, the Centralia Downtown Association, along with local merchants, members of the Lewis County community, and several in-the-know out-of-towners, are “gearing” up for the seventh annual Lighted Tractor Parade on Saturday, December 10, at 6:00 p.m.
This year, downtown Centralia will be having a Christmas Market the day of the parade, with several participating vendors. The staging area, where participants park their vehicles and decorate their floats, opens around noon, and has become as much of an attraction as the parade itself.
Amanda McDougall is one of the original Lighted Tractor Parade coordinators and continues to oversee the event on behalf of the Centralia Downtown Association. “We wanted to do something that was a family-friendly event that would coincide with the holidays and bring people downtown. We looked at events all over the country, and at the time, the closest lighted tractor parade was in Lynden. My parents have acreage, and my siblings all participated in FFA, so a tractor parade just seemed to be a good fit to me.”
Many active community members contribute to the parade, even if they aren’t behind the wheel or waving from a float. Local attorney and Centralia City Council member Peter Abbarno has been the parade’s announcer for the past several years, and helps organize a group of judges, many of them representing different parts of the community. “We’ve had a dairy princess be a judge, our former school superintendent was a judge when he worked here, and sometimes the mayor is a judge.” There are “seven or eight” categories that the judges hand out trophies for, including Best Float, Best Youth Entry, Best Musical Entry, and Best Tractor Entry.
David King, owner of King Agriculture Museum and Grand Marshal for the 2015 Lighted Tractor Parade, has participated every year, featuring tractors, trucks, and other vehicles from his vast collection. For David, it’s all about the people who brave the cold weather and wait patiently along the route.
“The thing that’s fun about participating in the parade is the people that turn out to see us, and how it increases with every year. That, for me, is the reason I’m in the parade. The people on the street, if they see someone in the parade, and they know them, it makes them feel good. It’s that recognition thing, where the people in the crowd will give you the thumbs-up.”
“We usually try to take something that we know runs very well, and that is going to make it through the parade. One year, I put my lumber carrier in the parade, and it’s a gas model. With gas, you never know – sometimes it will overheat, or the carburetor starts acting up – differrent things happen. We were just tickled when we got all the way through the parade and it didn’t break down.” In the rare case that a parade vehicle stalls, participants come prepared. “Once in a while, a truck or tractor will carry a tow strap, and somebody hooks onto that and pulls through.”
When submitting your vehicle or float, there’s only one requirement to keep in mind. “There’s a minimum of 1,000 Christmas lights on a tractor – 2,500 on a float,” says Amanda. People who don’t own a tractor but have a vehicle and a creative concept for a float can join in, as long as they use the required amount of lights. “We’re not tractor snobs. We’ve had ATVs and semi-trucks in the parade.”
This year, the Lighted Tractor Parade has instituted a “no throwing candy” policy, to ensure that children don’t run into the street in the dark and that people watching the festivities don’t get hit in the face. “We are highly encouraging participants to have someone walking alongside them to safely hand out candy during the parade.”
The parade has piqued interest from vintage vehicle owners outside of Lewis County, who are always welcome to participate. “Last year, we had a gentleman bring his grandson and his antique tractor from Seattle. Additionally, we’ve had some antique fire trucks that have participated every year, and they are from the Battle Ground, Washington, area.”
Amanda has no shortage of memorable parade float stories, all created by a diverse group of community members. “There are some churches that have entered some very cool manger displays on trailers. ABATE (a motorcycle advocacy group with a Lewis County chapter) has held Santa on their float for the last couple of years, complete with a dozen or so motorcycles on a flatbed, pulling Santa on his sleigh. Global Septic has done some hilarious floats over the past few years, with a tractor and a lit-up Porta Potty. People bring their own spin to it, and I like that.”
“We’re thankful for the support and cool to see how it’s grown, and it’s grown because people get invested in it. Everybody I’ve talked to is pleased with the traffic that it brings. If it wasn’t for the entrants who put a lot of time, pride, and money into making their floats be what they are, we wouldn’t have a parade.”
Registration for parade vehicles is still open. The form can be found here. Parade coordinators are still looking for volunteers to escort the floats to the route and help with traffic at night – if interested, please contact Centralia Downtown Association via their official site, or through the Lighted Tractor Parade’s Facebook Events page.
