Madrid New Mexico, a small town on the Turquoise Trail and where highway 14 runs through is the setting for the Christmas parade. It begins at 4:00 p.m and is over by 4:15 p.m. Blink ~ and you’ll miss it, but you don’t want to. This article in the New Mexico Magazine, http://www.nmmagazine.com/article/?aid=94023#.WEXtTpJaWWa, is what drew me there, “The Yak Who Stalled Christmas” and I knew I had to see this for myself.
I stopped counting how many Santa’s there were, how many antique cars, how many peanuts were thrown, how many random revelers and groups of small children there were parading down this tiny main street. Bob Shlaer, (labeled here as the semi-cranky bagpiper) led the procession. He’s a really nice guy!
And, after the parade was over… everyone who was in the parade, the cars and the yak, strolled back to the beginning because, why wouldn’t they! It was a one way parade and one road to walk on.
Here’s a glimpse of what I saw. Feel free Madroids, to tag yourself in the comment section. Or write to me and I will tag you.
From Clinton Anderson, a Madrid resident, local DJ and has strong ties to the community: “It’s been going on since I moved to Madrid in 2002. My understanding is it has been going on since the 1970’s when Madrid was revived from being a ghost town. Supposedly, back in its coal-mining days, Madrid had lots of festive Christmas lights and celebrations. (The coal company could easily afford to burn some of the coal it was digging up to generate electricity for the town, so it was for its time a relatively lavish user of electricity.) So, part of the intent of the Christmas parade is to celebrate the town’s history as always having gone all-out to celebrate Christmas. The other part of the intent, as you no doubt witnessed, is to celebrate the quirkiness and diversity of Madrid’s current population. We bring elements of Halloween and Mardi Gras into every holiday celebration, dressing up in wild costumes and partying heartily.”
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