GRANADA HILLS : Holiday Parade Focuses on Youth

An 11-year tradition continues Sunday with the Granada Hills Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting.

“We’re really proud of it in this day and age,” said John Ciccarelli, a former president of the Granada Hills Chamber of Commerce who has chaired the parade since it began in 1983.

While the parade’s theme this year is “Storybook Holidays,” the event will also recall the Northridge earthquake and the community’s recovery efforts.

Among the 4,000 parade participants expected are the members of the Northridge Little League team, who won the national championship after capturing public interest as the Earthquake Kids.

The parade has always had a youth-oriented theme. Organizers said its origins lie in the annual Youth in Action parade held every September back in the 1970s.

It was later that the Chamber of Commerce decided to tie the event to the holiday season, Ciccarelli said.

The parade has doubled in size over the past decade, he added. “It really is a labor of love.”

This year’s procession is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday and will run along Chatsworth Street through the heart of the Granada Hills business community, from the recreation center on Petit Avenue west to Lindley Avenue, ending at the Coast Federal Bank parking lot.

The parade will conclude with a tree-lighting ceremony between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Santa Claus will light a 65-foot evergreen, which Ciccarelli said is the largest living Christmas tree in the San Fernando Valley.

Also participating will be Frank Bonner from the television series “WKRP in Cincinnati”; Armin Shimerman from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” and the Tokens singing group, whose song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” was recently featured in the animated hit “The Lion King.”

Scout groups, marching bands, antique automobiles and equestrian units will also join the parade.