Strike Up the Band! Christmas Parades in New Jersey

Searching for a New Jersey Christmas Parade near me?

Let Jersey Family Fun help! We do the hard work so you don’t have to. We know many kids love the joy of marching in a neighborhood Christmas parade around their community. Many squeal to see Santa on firetrucks and sleighs. Floats toss candy canes and treats. What’s not to love? We get it and over the past few years we’ve seen more and more New Jersey towns add a Christmas parade to their local Christmas events.

As we’ve been doing with other posts we decided to make it easier than ever to help our readers find Christmas Parades in their New Jersey communities, by listing them all in one place.

We know we are still in difficult times. Christmas parades are such a tradition in some New Jersey towns. I believe that towns across New Jersey really want to have their annual Christmas parades. Their biggest concern is can they keep YOU, Santa, and kids safe and still pull off the parade.

Our Fantastic Guide to New Jersey Christmas Parades

Just like Halloween, town by town, conversations are going on about whether or not to have the NJ Christmas parades and if they have them can they do it safely. We’ll go through all of our listing multiple times between now and Christmas to monitor the status of Christmas parades. The work parade organizers are doing is not easy. Please be patient with them. If your parade has been cancelled or is suddenly cancelled on short notice, understand the decision was not done lightly and may have been completely out of their hands.

If it turns out your Christmas parade is cancelled and there is not one local to you, come back to this guide OR our other Christmas guide to find alternate Christmas parades and activities you can take part in with your kids.

Below you’ll find our listing of New Jersey Christmas Parades organized by region. For each one we’ll tell you the name of the parade and the date and its current status. We encourage you to click the link for each parade event to find out more details such as the address, if registration is required for participants, and if there’s an alternate date in the event of rain. Keep in mind too, that some Christmas parades may have special requirements to participate.

5 Tips for having a great time at a parade with kids

Arrive early for the best seating to watch the parade.
Dress your kids in glow in the dark bracelets and necklaces if the parade is at night. (Link is an amazon affiliate link.)
If your kids are marching in the parade make sure their shoes are comfortable for walking in.
If your kids are watching the parade bring healthy snacks to balance out the treats that will be available.
Bring something comfortable to sit on while watching.

BONUS TIP: Bring a bucket to catch candy canes or other candy and treats being tossed from parade floats.

Christmas Parades in New Jersey

We will be updating this list OFTEN for Christmas 2022. If you have a Christmas parade to add to this listing and our calendar of events please our Free Event Submission Form to submit your event listing.

We’re currently updating this for Christmas 2022. Save this and check back often for updates.

North Jersey Christmas Parades

These Christmas parades are happening in Bergen County, Essex County, Hudson County, Passaic County, Morris County, Somerset County, Sussex County, Union County, and Warren County.