WEBB CITY, Mo. — It was a chilly night for Southwest Missouri’s last Christmas parade of the holiday season. However, the cold didn’t stop people from attending the Webb City Christmas parade tonight (12/14). 52 entries, including Santa, made their way North along Main Street in downtown Webb City.
One of the parade floats was from a literacy promotion program called “Webb City Reads.” Last year the group made their first appearance in the city’s annual Christmas parade, but instead of handing out candy, they gave out donated books — 500 to be exact.
Before reaching the end of the parade route, the books were all but gone. This year, however, the group came prepared. 1,500 books were handed out, all for free, to those watching the parade. Webb City Reads had enough books on hand to finish out tonight’s parade.
“Candy is totally dispensable and it’s just going to last you a few moments of joy, but a book you can enjoy for the rest of your life,” said Mary Sears with Webb City Reads.
“I work at the Webster Library here and we know how important it is to get books in the hands of kids so, the kids were super excited to get books for all different reading levels that were passed out during the parade tonight,” said Webb City paradegoer, Mary Jo Smith.
The crew from KSN and KODE also made an appearance tonight — and, once again, handed out plenty of candy.
If you missed out on any of this season’s Christmas parades from across the area, you can check out some of our online stories, including video below: