Tulsa Parades Combine, Leave Christmas Controversy Behind

Two become one this Christmas in Tulsa.

Downtown Tulsa and the Tulsa Hills Christmas Parade are teaming up this year to make one big parade.

The theme is an old-fashioned family Christmas and to stick to that theme, the parade will travel the historic downtown parade route.

The parade has been a point of controversy for several years.

The downtown parade replaced the word “Christmas” with “Holiday” in 2009. Two years later, a second parade, the Tulsa Hills Christmas paradewas created to keep the word Christmas in the title. And the holiday parade continued downtown.

Then last year, a nonprofit group called Tulsa Events Group, LLC took over and put Christmas back in the title for the downtown parade.

Which brings us to Thursday's announcement that the two parades are combining with the name the Tulsa Christmas Parade, presented by American Waste Control.

Parade organizers expect 30,000 people to attend.

“We want to keep it community focused, we want to keep it family focused and we want to keep it Christ-centered,” parade chairman Paul Ross said.

The parade will be held December 12, starting at 6 p.m. There's still time to enter a float, band or balloon, and that deadline is Nov. 15.