'Normalcy, Fun, And Joy For The Holidays': The MOCO Thanksgiving Parade Returns

SILVER SPRING, MD — When the first Montgomery County Thanksgiving Parade was held 25 years ago, large helium-balloon cartoon characters traveled through Silver Spring’s downtown. Since then, a lot has changed — the size of the parade itself has doubled, the audience has swelled to 10 or 15,000 people each year, and those helium balloons are actually nowhere to be found.

That’s because Silver Spring’s downtown has developed over the last quarter century, with the installation of traffic lights that block the path of the bigger balloons, said Susan Hoffmann, who worked to get the parade going in 1996 and still runs it today. Hoffmann was working on the redevelopment of the downtown area at the time and saw a place for the parade there — she’s now the Marketing and Special Events manager for the Silver Spring Regional Center when she isn’t working on the parade.

“It didn't happen overnight, but we were doing lots of other things that would engage the community, and bring fun things and interesting things to the community,” Hoffmann told Patch about her idea to start the parade.

She worked with a contractor to get the parade going and continues to innovate each year for ways it can be bigger and better. Those helium balloons, for example, have been replaced with 12-foot inflatable characters that are still highly visible but don’t run into any problems along the parade route.

A few years back, the parade was picked up and shown on television. Unfortunately that won’t happen this year, because the network was concerned that it would be canceled due to COVID-19, as it was last year. The benefit of that though, Hoffmann said, is they don’t need to try to confine the parade to two hours anymore, which offers some flexibility in the way they can do things.

“We always try to make it better and bigger and more fun,” said Hoffmann.

In the past there’ve been high school marching bands, college marching bands, and even military marching bands. This year students from the Akhmedova Ballet School will perform scenes from the “Nutcracker,” gymnasts will make an appearance, as will the bands.

“It’s just a wonderful combination of things that resonate with the community,” said Hoffmann. “Although, we have grown so much that now we have people coming from the entire DMV.”

The Montgomery County Thanksgiving Parade is the only one in the D.C. metro area, and it’s especially important this year because it’s returning from a year off. Since the parade was canceled last year this only the 24th parade, with the 25th anniversary parade coming next year.

Bringing the parade back means a lot to Hoffmann on a personal level, but she said it’s even more important for the volunteers and people who come out to watch the parade every year. People love parades, she said.

“With what we've been through with the pandemic, any time we can return to anything normal, like people just having their Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends again, [it] is so meaningful,” said Hoffmann. “Then something huge like the parade, it just rings true that we're back, and life is maybe not 100 percent normal, but real close, and [it shows] how thrilled we are to be able to continue to live our lives the way we want to.”

The parade will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20 in Silver Spring’s Downtown. It’s free for all and will feature the debut of Mrs. Claus alongside Santa, who has been the longtime closer of the parade.

“We want it to be the Thanksgiving parade, the Montgomery County Thanksgiving Parade, that everyone is used to and looks forward to and I know that they will not be disappointed,” said Hoffmann. “I think that's the most important thing for me — that we're back to a sense of normalcy, a sense of fun, a sense of joy for the holidays, and that everyone can come together in celebration for the upcoming holiday season.”

Hoffmann will enjoy the parade on Saturday, working with the hosts and making sure everything goes smoothly, but on Monday when she heads into the office, it’s back to the drawing board for the Montgomery County Thanksgiving Parade 2022.

Learn more about the parade, from where to park to safety measures, here.