One year, Devin Scillian and his family were set to ride the Mother Goose float down Kercheval in the Grosse Pointe Santa Claus Parade. The float never arrived. Terri Berschback, the parade's director from about 2002 to 2012, told C&G Newspapers that The Parade Company in Detroit had forgotten to send its floats that year. The Scillians rode an antique fire truck instead, one belonging to the family of El's Boutique owner Ellen Durand.
The story is funny, and it also shows how the parade is put together. Its biggest pieces are borrowed from Detroit. Business sponsors help pay for them, and the entry fees for community groups stay small enough that many of the people marching are neighbors of the people lining the curb. The 51st parade, themed "Stars, Stripes & Sleigh Bells," steps off at 10 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 27, and once you know who pays for each part, the lineup makes sense.
Woodward on Thursday, Kercheval on Friday
The Parade Company produces America's Thanksgiving Parade, and this year's Woodward parade on Thursday, Nov. 26, is the 100th. Kercheval has its parade the next morning. According to that same C&G Newspapers history, the Grosse Pointe parade has borrowed Parade Company floats over the years. Chamber executive director Jenny Boettcher said last year's parade featured "spectacular floats provided by the Detroit Parade Company." A 2023 C&G report said that year's lineup would include five floats from The Parade Company.
This year's sponsor packages build on that arrangement. The top two tiers are sold on access to "an iconic Parade Company float."
Floats like these cost money that a homegrown parade doesn't have, and the early parade was very homegrown. Berschback described the first years to C&G as volunteers building floats out of abandoned items at Grosse Pointe Moving and Storage in Detroit. "It was a whole homespun kind of deal," she said. Borrowed Parade Company floats replaced the scrap-built ones, and the parade began to depend on a steady source of money.
The price of a spot in the lineup
The Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce took over the parade in 2012, after years under volunteers and the Village Association. Berschback told C&G that the Chamber's business contacts matter because sponsors "enable organizers to pay for school marching bands, float rentals and other expenses." She was blunt about the job before that: "The worst part of the (parade director) job was getting the money to pay for everything," she said, remembering "sitting in my basement on my phone" looking for sponsors.
The Chamber's 2026 registration page, which is now closed, lists what each spot cost this year:
| Tier | Chamber member | Non-member | What it buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star-Spangled Santa | $10,000 | $10,500 | Leads the parade as grand marshal, VIP ride on a Parade Company float with a custom banner |
| Red, White and Reindeer | $5,000 | $5,300 | Banner on a Parade Company float, high-level recognition in parade marketing |
| Patriotic Peppermint | $1,000 | $1,300 | Banner carriers provided to march the route |
| Liberty Lane | $500 | $700 | March with your own business banner |
| Nonprofit organization | $250 | Participation | |
| School group | $75 | Participation |
The table shows how the parade is funded. The grand marshal role belongs to the presenting sponsor. The two highest tiers both come with a place on a Parade Company float, so the floats are part of what sponsors are paying for. The prices then drop sharply. A business pays at least $500 to march with its banner, a nonprofit pays $250, and a school group pays $75. Non-members pay $200 to $500 more at each business tier, which also makes the parade a way for the Chamber to bring in members.
That pricing fits a line from Grosse Pointe Farms City Manager Shane Reeside in the C&G piece: "It's one of those parades where half of the community is there to watch the parade and the other half is in the parade." Sponsors help cover the bands and float rentals, and a school group's entry costs $75. Reeside also credited the Chamber with "expanding it, bringing in sponsors and adding elements."
What the money put on the street last year
The 2025 parade, the 50th, shows what that lineup looks like. Boettcher told C&G it would have "an expanded lineup of floats, school bands, and community groups," along with "larger than life inflatables" and a performance by Grosse Pointe Theatre.
Last year's marching bands came from Grosse Pointe South, Grosse Pointe North, Harper Woods, Detroit School of Arts and Chandler Park. Boettcher said the parade usually draws about 10,000 spectators. Several of those bands come from outside the Pointes. A parade that pays for bands can recruit them, and that's the expense Berschback said sponsors cover.
Boettcher's own family helps with the logistics. She told C&G that after the Chamber took over, her five sons were "bagging meters the night before, helping deliver banners, and assisting with setup," and that the family later dressed up as "dancing reindeer, inflatable elves, tin soldiers, and Christmas trees." Sponsors help pay for floats and bands, and volunteers handle setup.
Santa's ride has a similar story. The 2023 C&G report said a custom sleigh for Santa and Mrs. Claus, built by Detroit's Prop Art Studio with sponsor and individual donations, was planned to debut in that year's parade.
How the route reached the Hill and The Village
Beverly Leinweber started the parade in 1975. She was the Village Association's marketing director then and later became its executive director. The route used to start at Fisher Road, according to former City of Grosse Pointe city manager Thomas Kressbach, who held the job from 1966 to 2001. Setup happened on Maumee Avenue and Grosse Pointe Boulevard near Grosse Pointe South.
Today the parade starts at Lewiston Road and Kercheval in Grosse Pointe Farms and runs a little over a mile to Kercheval and Cadieux in the City. That route passes through both commercial districts, the Hill and The Village. For a parade backed by business sponsors, the route passes two sets of storefronts.
Kressbach recalled the early parades for C&G. Santa used to receive a key to the city from the City of Grosse Pointe's mayor and then go into Jacobson's to meet children. One year, Leinweber brought in the Budweiser Clydesdales, which spent the night at Neff Park and led the parade the next morning. "That year, our DPW (Department of Public Works) had pooper scoopers go through the parade," Kressbach said. He also remembered residents along the route serving coffee and doughnuts to spectators. Jacobson's is gone, and Santa now meets children at his workshop in The Village.
The parade is one stop in a month of Village events
On the City of Grosse Pointe's side of the route, the parade falls in the middle of Main Street Grosse Pointe's "Holidays in The Village" season, which runs Nov. 20 through Dec. 19. Here are the dates that matter between publication and the last weekend before Christmas:
- Friday, Nov. 20, 5:30 p.m. The Village Tree Lighting, next to Lululemon, with the Grosse Pointe South Choir, s'mores, hot chocolate and a meet-and-greet with holiday characters, according to the City of Grosse Pointe.
- Friday, Nov. 27, 10 to 11:30 a.m. The 51st Santa Claus Parade, "Stars, Stripes & Sleigh Bells," from Lewiston Road to Cadieux Road. Details are posted at the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce.
- Saturday, Nov. 28. Small Business Saturday and the first Santa's Workshop of the season, listed by The Village Grosse Pointe.
- Saturdays, Dec. 5, 12 and 19. Santa's Workshop returns each week, with the last one on Dec. 19, the final day of the Village season.
These dates connect to the parade. In the old version, Santa ended the parade at Jacobson's. Now he goes to his Village workshop the next day and comes back on three more Saturdays. The Chamber runs the Friday parade, and The Village's calendar keeps Santa on Kercheval for three more Saturdays after that. If you watch the parade from the Hill end, you can walk the same mile of Kercheval the next morning for Small Business Saturday.
On parade morning, Boettcher's own childhood memory is a good guide to where to stand. She told C&G Newspapers that her family gathered at her grandparents' house on Kercheval, where "Granny would bring her hot chocolate cart out with donuts to share with all the grandkids, and friends."
Kressbach and Boettcher both remember front yards along Kercheval as parade-morning gathering spots. If you're thinking about a home along the route, or one within walking distance of the Hill or The Village, Shana Sine Cameron can talk you through what life on Kercheval is like on parade day and the rest of the year. Schedule Your Free Consultation, and we'll walk the route together.
