CHARLESTON, W.Va. –Applications are now being accepted for the annual Christmas Parade in the capital city.
The 2025 Charleston Christmas Parade will be held on Thursday, December 11, at 7 p.m. Applications will remain open until November 25 or until 125 participants have registered.
Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin’s Chief of Staff, Matt Sutton, says this is a major event for the city.
“We have people calling about the Christmas Parade in September, people love their parades and I know that they also schedule it out because there’s a lot of Christmas parades going on throughout the county, and in Putnam County and other areas, so people try to plan it out because we don’t want to duplicate nights,” he said on 580 Live last week.
This year’s theme is Tinsel Town.
Sutton said it will give participants a chance to sparkle.
“So everybody can sparkle up, your nod to your favorite sort of classic Christmas movies, and how you interpret the theme of Tinsel Town. It’s a really fun event,” he said.
The city encourages local businesses, organizations, school groups, and bands to apply.
Sutton said this is so much more than the parade, it’s about the environment and the atmosphere.
“When we got the trees up and I think the Charleston Area Alliance are doing there window decorating contest again this year, so those types of things really add to that environment and have the Christmas Parade kind of as the culmination of a lot of it as we head into the holidays, it is just a really special night in Charleston,” he said.
The anticipated route for the parade is as follows: starting at Kanawha Boulevard and Capitol Street, then proceeding along Washington Street and Summers Street, before exiting westbound on Kanawha Boulevard.
Applications can be found at their website here.
Photo: Last year’s parade, Kanawha County Commission