Montevideo Christmas Parade Set for Sunday

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

The weather should be perfect Sunday for the 30th annual Montevideo Christmas Parade.

As it does every year, the parade begins at 2 p.m. Sunday on the Hart County/Elbert County line.

Organizers said it’s a parade for the “other guy,” with no special rules, no pomp and circumstance, just a lot of fun.

Spectators come from all over Northeast Georgia and the Carolinas to watch the parade and be in it.

The event in Montevideo always takes place the Sunday before Christmas.

Ben Brown’s late father, Richard, was one of the original organizers of the parade that is commonly known as the Redneck Christmas parade, although Brown says he doesn’t like that term.

Brown said it wasn’t one person who came up with the idea for the parade.

“A bunch of people just kind of got together one year and say ‘let’s have a parade’ and they got on their tractors and trucks and made a route and it just got bigger and bigger,” said Brown.

30 years later, thousands show up to be in the parade and to watch it go by.

As many as 10,000 people, including participants and spectators have been part of the Redneck Christmas parade in years past.

The parade route stretches about 2.5 miles from beginning to end along Montevideo Road.

It starts in Hart County at the old Montevideo store and ends at the Rock Branch Community Center in Elbert County.

Brown said no entry fees are charged to be in the parade, you just need to show up and line up.

“All they have to do is show up, anybody that can act civil,” said Brown.

Over the years, the parade has included all kinds of participants, everything from cars to horses, to highly decorated floats to sheriff’s cars, wagons, Harley-Davidsons, four-wheelers, ambulances, antique cars, you name it.

Again, the Montevideo “Redneck” Christmas parade takes place Sunday at 2 p.m.

Spectators are advised to come early to get a good parking spot and a good spot for viewing the parade.