66th Annual Greater Manassas Christmas Parade

Since 1945 the City of Manassas has put on a Christmas parade the first weekend in December, and this year the tradition lives on with the 66th Annual Greater Manassas Christmas Parade taking place Saturday at 10 a.m.

A variety of local high school marching bands, cub scouts and churches, Manassas Police Color Guard and the Washington Redskins Marching Band will be apart of 100 marching units in this year's event that is expected to attract over 50,000 people.

There will be over 2,000 volunteer participants in this year's parade.

The theme for the 2011 parade is 'Christmas Remembered' to highlight what one remembers about Christmas when they were a child. Volunteers have been working feverishly to design floats surrounding the theme, including a Snoopy Float from the students at Mayfield Intermediate School and a Dr.Seuss Grinch float created by the folks at Okra's.

Dr.Seuss will have another presence at the parade with 'The Lorax' walking around greeting children along the way. The Lorax is a character from the new animated Dr.Seuss film featuring Danny Devito, Zac Efron and Taylor Swift.

Also featured this year are and . This will be Hughes' last year as City Manager and Lay will be riding in style in a 1957 Chevy Convertible, owned by friend and co-worker Bob Anderson. This is Anderson's second time volunteering his ride for the parade.

The parade will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday morning at Liberia and Mathis Avenue, but the streets will close two hours prior. A complete list of road closure and the parade route can be found at www.gmchristmasparade.org.

This year the parade is welcoming back seven New York City firefighters; Trevor McNeice. James McCue, Joseph DiStefano, Brian Cirillo, Frank Bifone, Daniel Cahill and Anthony Watts will be representing the FDNY and be present at the Tree lighting ceremony as well as the parade.

It was back in Decemeber 2001— just two months after the attacks on September 11— that 21 New York City firefighters and two police officers attended the Manassas Christmas Parade.

Check out video from last year's parade and stay up-to-date on all the parade news at on the Greater Manassas Christmas Parade Facebook page.