You can take it from the late Gene Autry, the singing cowboy who gave us his popular Christmas recording of old Saint Nick heading our way.
“Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane,” Autry sang in 1947.
And Santa will be on hand this Saturday along Person Street and Hay Street for the 26th Annual Fayetteville Rotary Club Christmas Parade, which is scheduled for 10 a.m. in our downtown.
“We are so excited to bring another family-friendly Rotary Christmas Parade to downtown Fayetteville,” says Brandon Price, the parade chair. “This is an amazing event that you don’t want to miss. We are looking forward to all the crowd favorites and to see the creativity of all our entries.”
Grand marshals Roosevelt Pratt Jr., the recently retired E.E. Smith High School Marching Band director, and The Salvation Army of the Sandhills will lead the parade.
Pratt led the award-winning “Magnificent Marching Machine” for 28 years, and according to the Fayetteville Rotary Club website, has been a popular parade entry often rivaling Saint Nick himself.
The Salvation Army of the Sandhills has served our community since 1887, according to a club news release, and annually conducts its Red Kettle Campaign and Angel Tree Program, which benefits children and senior adults in need. The Salvation Army this year is partnering with Toys for Tots, according to the release, to serve four times as many children, and again is joining with The Fayetteville Observer to raise holiday funds through the Bill Shaw Salvation Army Christmas Fund.
“We have approximately 110 entries in this year’s parade,” Price said Monday. “This includes Miss Fayetteville Haleigh Jo Baker and several other queens and kings. Many representing their schools to include homecoming queens. We have all of the area high school bands, which is always exciting.”
Dominique Womack from Cumulus Broadcasting, Price says, will be master of ceremonies for the parade, which will include dance groups, motorcycles, horses and the Ville City Jeeps, an organization of local Jeep owners and the parade’s official safety partners since 2022. Also featured will be Andrea Young, Rotary International District 7730 governor.
“The parade brings approximately 10,000-15,000,” Price said, and the club is anticipating another strong turnout Saturday.
“Saturday will be mild,” said Carolyn Justice-Hinson, a past president of the club founded in 1920. “It should be a great day for a parade.”
A holiday gift to the community
Call the Fayetteville Rotary Club Christmas Parade a holiday gift to the city and this community, and we can thank the Fayetteville Rotary Club, and particularly late club members Johnson Chestnutt and Matthew Smith, both of whom carried on the holiday tradition when the club learned there would not be a Christmas parade in 1999.
Former club member Greg Gunn was chair of the first parade, and it has since been a holiday staple in the downtown. Chestnutt was co-chair of the parade until his death at age 67 on April 18, 2017. Smith chaired the parade until 2020. Matthew Smith died at age 86 on April 7, 2025.
Chestnutt and Smith took such delight in joining with fellow club members watching the faces of youngsters along Hay Street enjoying the holiday floats, bands, dancers and all the trappings of the parade in anticipation of Santa Claus on his way.
Epilogue
Old Saint Nick won’t be coming down Santa Claus Lane, but you will find him atop the Fayetteville Fire Department’s antique fire truck along Person Street, circling the Market House and along Hay Street to the railway depot just past Segra Stadium.
“Promoting peace, goodwill and understanding through service to others is Rotary’s mission,” said David Deschamps, the 2025-26 Fayetteville Rotary Club president. “The Rotary Christmas Parade is a great example of the power of Rotary, bringing our community together with the common bond of celebrating the holiday season.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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