Christmas Ship Parades

Portland, Oregon has a venerable tradition (55 years and counting) of parading lighted boats up and down the Willamette and Columbia Rivers during the holiday season.  It's a lot of fun to pull up on the lawn or dock of one of the many riverside parks, wrap up in a blanket and watch the imaginative boats parade by.  If the weather doesn't cooperate, you can catch them the next day at a different stretch of river    Andrew Curtis produced a great little video of the 2008 Christmas Ship Parade that runs through the entire parade in about a minute set to Vince Guaraldi Christmas music.  

For more info on the Portland Parade visit the Christmas Ship Parade web site at http://www.christmasships.org/.

If you're not in Portland, there are dozens of similar parades around North America.  Blue Water Sailing has a current schedule of events around the US and Canada.

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Have a joyous holiday season!