The Hollywood Christmas Parade (formerly the Hollywood Santa Parade and Santa Claus Lane Parade) is an annual American parade held on the Sunday after

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

. It follows a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) route along

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the east at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district and proceeds to the west as a major thoroughfare through Little Armenia and Thai Town, Hollywoo ...

, then back along

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in ...

, featuring various celebrities. Traditionally, Santa Claus appears at the end.

History

1900s

Beginning in 1928, Hollywood merchants transformed a one-mile stretch of Hollywood Boulevard into "Santa Claus Lane" to boost shopping. Part of the promotion was a daily parade featuring Santa Claus and a film star. Originally called the ''Santa Claus Lane Parade'', the inaugural event featured only Santa Claus and the actress

Jeanette Loff Jeanette Loff (born Janette Clarinda Lov; October 9, 1906 – August 4, 1942) was an American actress, musician, and singer who came to prominence for her appearances in several Pathé Exchange and Universal Pictures films in the 1920s. Born ...

. The parade continued to grow in scale with the help of local businesses and the community. In 1931, Santa Claus rode a truck-pulled float instead of the reindeer-pulled carriage of previous years. American Legion Post 43 marched with a color guard, drum line, and bugle corps. The parade was suspended from 1942 to 1944 due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and reopened in 1945 with record attendance. In 1946, Gene Autry rode his horse in the parade and was inspired by the children yelling "Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus," to write the song "

Here Comes Santa Claus "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" is a popular Christmas song written and originally performed by Gene Autry, with music composed by Oakley Haldeman. Autry's original recording (in which he pronounces Santa Claus as "Santy Cl ...

" along with Oakley Haldeman. Autry would become a perennial Grand Marshal of the parade. The parade continued to grow throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, adding floats, animals, bands and celebrities. By 1978, the parade had been renamed the ''Hollywood Christmas Parade'' in order to attract more celebrities, and was broadcast locally on KTLA (which was purchased by Autry's Golden West Broadcasters in 1964) with the help of Autry and Johnny Grant. This change coincided with a shift in the parade's scheduling from Thanksgiving Eve to the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and continued to be a decades-long tradition on Los Angeles's channel 5, even after Autry's sale of KTLA to KKR in 1982, then

Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United St ...

in 1985.

2000s

In 2002, an attempt to present the parade as a primetime special on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

Grand Marshals

* 1928 -

* 1932 - Joe E. Brown * 1939 - Gene Autry * 1940 ** Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz **

Joan Leslie Joan Leslie (born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel; January 26, 1925 – October 12, 2015) was an American actress and vaudevillian, who during the Hollywood Golden Age, appeared in such films as '' High Sierra'' (1941), ''Sergeant York'' (1941) ...

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...

** Harry Sherman * 1941 -

Irene Rich Irene Rich (born Irene Frances Luther; October 13, 1891 – April 22, 1988) was an American actress who worked in both silent films and talkies, as well as radio. Early life Rich was born in Buffalo, New York. At age 17, she wed Elvo Elc ...

* 1948 -

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...

* 1949–1951 Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz * 1957 -

Art Linkletter Arthur Gordon Linkletter (born Gordon Arthur Kelly or Arthur Gordon Kelly; sources differ; July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of ''Art Linkletter's House Party, House Par ...

* 1958 -

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* 1959 - Charlton Heston * 1960, 1981 -

Dale Evans Dale Evans Rogers (born Frances Octavia Smith; October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001) was an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers. Early life Evans was born Frances Octavia Smith on ...

and

* 1961 - Gene Autry * 1962 -

Danny Thomas Danny Thomas (born Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz; January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American actor, singer, nightclub comedian, producer, and philanthropist. He created and starred in one of the most successful and long-running sitc ...

* 1963 -

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

* 1964 - Dick Van Dyke * 1965 -

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* 1966 -

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* 1967 - Fred MacMurray * 1968 -

Buddy Ebsen Buddy Ebsen (born Christian Ludolf Ebsen Jr., April 2, 1908 – July 6, 2003), also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer, whose career spanned seven decades. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS ...

* 1969 - Walter Matthau * 1970 -

Ernest Borgnine Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...

* 1971 - Johnny Mathis * 1972 - General Robert E. Cushman Jr. * 1973 -

* 1974 - John Wayne * 1975 -

* 1976 - General

Omar Bradley Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893April 8, 1981) was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. Bradley was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and over ...

* 1977 -

Jimmy Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...

St. Joseph News Press newspaper, St. Joseph, MO, Nov. 26, 1977, Spotlight section, page 2 * 1978 -

* 1979 -

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and

Natalie Wood Natalie Wood ( Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles. Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring r ...

* 1980 - Gene Autry * 1982 -

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. He ...

* 1983 -

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* 1984 - Michael Landon * 1985 -

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* 1986 -

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and

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* 1987 - James Stewart * 1988 -

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* 1989 -

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

* 1990 - Arnold Schwarzenegger * 1991 - Charlton Heston * 1992 - Tom Arnold and

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* 1993 -

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and

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* 1994 -

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* 1995 -

* 1996 -

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* 1997 - Tom Arnold * 1998 -

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* 1999 - Beau Bridges * 2000 - Dennis Hopper and Frankie Muñiz * 2001 - Peter Fonda * 2002 - Mickey Rooney * 2003 - Johnny Grant * 2004 - Magic Johnson * 2005 -

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* 2006 - George López * 2007 - Bob Barker * 2008 -

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and

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* 2009 -

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* 2010 -

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* 2011 -

Marie Osmond Olive Marie Osmond (born October 13, 1959) is an American singer, actress, television host, and a member of the show business family the Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a country and pop ...

* 2012 -

Joe Mantegna Joseph Anthony Mantegna (, ; born November 13, 1947) is an American actor. Mantegna began his career on stage in 1969 in the Chicago production of the musical ''Hair''. He earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and a Joseph Jeff ...

* 2013 -

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* 2014 - Stevie Wonder * 2015 -

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* 2016 -

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

* 2017 - Mehmet C. Oz * 2018 -

Nancy O'Dell Nancy O'Dell (born Nancy Evelyn Humphries; 1966) is an American television host and entertainment journalist. She served as co-anchor of the syndicated entertainment news show ''Entertainment Tonight'' from January 3, 2011, to August 2, 2019. E ...

* 2019 - Mario López * 2021 -

Sheryl Underwood Sheryl Patrice Underwood (born October 28, 1963) is an American comedian, actress and television host. She first rose to prominence in the comedy world as the first female finalist in 1989's Miller Lite Comedy Search. Currently, Underwood is one ...

* 2022 -

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References

Resources