Let the good times roll; Stanford Christmas Parade goes over two hours for special filming

Published 6:05 pm Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Stanford Christmas Parade’s 40th anniversary was a big success and possibly the longest in its history.

A Great American Family crew filmed the entire parade for an upcoming special focused on Stanford called “Christmas in Kentucky.”

Email newsletter signup

Actress Jen Lilley is hosting the special. She led off the parade in a GAF float, followed by Mayor Dalton Miller.

Locals went all out on decorating their floats, everyone excited to be part of the special. The parade lasted over two hours, much longer than its usual 40 to 50 minutes.

Lincoln County Chamber member John David Friend estimated that there were over 100 floats. He said there were about 300 parade entries total, including tractors, golf carts, jeeps, horses, classic cars, floats, etc.

Entries included everything from the local schools, businesses, car clubs, local pageant winners, local organizations, and others. Multiple floats featured “The Grinch,” and everyone was excited to see Santa conclude the parade in a classic red truck.

“I think it’s been a great thing for Stanford,” Friend said. “People put a lot of hard work, and time, and effort, and money; there’s a lot of money invested in those floats.”

About 20 chamber board members and 100 volunteers helped put on the parade. The GAF crew filmed their efforts beforehand. They filmed people and places around Stanford for a week before the parade.

After the parade, the Snow Queen pageant took place in front of the courthouse with 92 participants. Winners included different age groups of queens, countesses, dutchesses, and princesses.

People can watch the Christmas special on the GAC network, which is Channel 1137 on Spectrum. The air date is set for Thursday, December 22 at 7 p.m. ET / 6 CT. A GAC spokesperson said this could change, however.