Due to a declining number of groups wishing to participate in this year’s drive-thru Christmas Parade, the city of Oxford and North Central Mississippi Realtors announced Thursday that the parade has been canceled.
Originally slated for Dec. 7, the committee devised a plan for a reverse, drive-thru parade where floats and bands would remain in one place while vehicles drove past, with Santa waiting for them at the end with bags of treats.
“As hard as we tried to provide something fun and normal for the kids and adults in our area in 2020, it has become evident that proceeding with the Oxford Christmas Parade is not possible,” the statement from NCMR said. “It breaks our hearts … We appreciate the hard work of our partners at the city of Oxford and all the entries and volunteers who really did everything humanly possible to work around the challenges of the year. Unfortunately, some things are just beyond our control, no matter how hard we try to make it work.”
Cases of COVID-19 have been rising over the last two weeks in Oxford. In the past week, Lafayette County gained 168 cases and seven new deaths. As of Wednesday, there were 325 active cases in Lafayette County.
