By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–Thousands of Helena residents gathered along Shelby County 91 and into Old Town Helena to enjoy the city of Helena’s 45^th annual Christmas parade on Saturday, Dec. 5.

It was a picture-perfect day for a parade as mild temperatures and sunny skies resulted in a large turnout to see the variety of floats and participants in the parade.

Dennis and Becky Migue have been longtime Helena residents and were seen with their tailgate chairs enjoying the day.

“We’ve been coming to the parade for a long time now, I think probably 20 years,” said Becky. “We’ve definitely been here before when it’s been freezing cold and raining so this is nice compared to that.”

The theme for this year’s parade was “We’ll Have a Blue Christmas,” and the city honored all of the fallen police officers.

Residents began lining the streets more than an hour before the scheduled start of the parade at 1 p.m. to get a good view of all the floats.

Some of the parade participants included the Helena High School marching band, the Helena police and fire departments, boy scouts and other youth groups, numerous custom jeeps, vintage cars and trucks, dance and hip hop groups, city leaders and more.

Kids could be seen sprawled out on the ground throughout the parade trying to collect as much candy as possible from parade participants throwing candy to them.

Helena Mayor Mark Hall was one of those participating in the parade and expressed thanks to all those who made the parade another success.

“Thanks to all the great volunteer parade committee members, public safety, staff and participants that worked together to put on another great parade,” said Hall.