The 78th annual Asheville Holiday Parade was canceled last year following Tropical Storm Helene — and now, sadly, it looks like it might be canceled forever in favor of a Holiday Jamboree.

Indeed, in 2024, the Asheville Downtown Association decided to hold the first-ever Asheville Holiday Jamboree in Pack Square Park downtown — instead of the beloved Asheville Holiday Parade.“That event, featuring vendors, children’s activities, Santa Claus and more, drew 6,500 people and was ‘hugely successful,’ said ADA Executive Director Hayden Plemmons,” the website Asheville Watchdog reported on Aug. 13.

A public uproar immediately erupted as word got out of Plemmons’ recent announcement that the ADA — in agreement with the city, she claimed — would host just a holiday jamboree again this year, with holiday parade plans scrapped.

In the aftermath, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said of the ADA’s announcement, “They’re going to do a little community input and determine what people prefer. Do they (the community) want a parade? Do they want a jamboree? And then make a decision,” Asheville Watchdog noted.

The city will need the ADA to make a decision “pretty quickly,” the mayor added, because the parade date is typically held the Saturday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 22 this year). The ADA’s next meeting will be Aug 28.

“A parade also would involve higher staffing needs and more planning, primarily because of security requirements and because the event takes up a larger footprint downtown,” Asheville Watchdog stated.

“The city has a contract with the Downtown Association that pays the organization a maximum of $187,500 over three years (2024, 2025, 2026) ‘for production of the Asheville Holiday Parade and the Independence Day Celebration.’ 

“Because of the contract, Manheimer said, city staff has told her City Council will have to vote on the parade issue after the association makes its decision.” (Council’s next meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Aug.  27.)

Meanwhile, Plemmons told the website, “Anyone who attended the Holiday Jamboree much preferred it to the parade. They knew exactly what time they were going on. They weren’t having their kids come out at seven o’clock in the morning and have to stay out until 4 p.m. walking on the hard concrete in the cold.”

Instead, let’s disregard the jaded view of Plemmons (who has only lived here since 2023), scrap the jamboree and hold the parade — and rename it, in the Paris of the South’s traditional spirit, as the Asheville Christmas Parade!