Celebrate the Season Parade | It's Christmas 365

In September, WPXI-TV said it would no longer produce an annual Christmas parade.

Originating with the Kaufmann’s Department Store, the Celebrate the Season Parade marched along Fifth Avenue under the Kaufmann’s Clock for many holiday seasons.

A brief history: Kaufmann’s became Macy’s in 2006, the Downtown store closed in 2015, the parade route changed in 2015 and then there was no parade in 2020 due to the pandemic but WPXI did a 40th anniversary special of the 39 previous parades.

Local celebrities, national stars, musicians and a myriad of floats, bands and other marchers participated over the years. Alex Trebek. Jerome Bettis. Mr. McFeely. Smiley Cookie. Kenny Kangaroo. “Days of our Lives” stars.

Cue John and Rachael from the YaJagoff Podcast.

The Pittsburgh-centric podcasters will host “The YaJagoff FAKE holiday parade.” (Git aht a tahn.)

The podcast duo shared great memories of the former Celebrate the Season Parade from Kaufmann’s and WPXI.

“We would always go home and watch it and see if we could see ourselves,” John told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “This parade was a big deal to me. My kids always knew we’re going down to the parade. No matter how cold or miserable it was, we were there.”

The “fake” parade will include a lineup of Pittsburghers.

And, the best part? There’s no actual parade route, so you’ll watch from any screen! (The parade “location” is being kept secret so as to not have people show up, apparently.)

The lineup includes:

Pittsburgh police Chief Scott Schubert, grand marshal
Totally 80s band
Mrheelyagirl, TikTok phenomenon
Brian Butko, Isaly’s book author (plus a float courtesy of Isaly’s)
City Flutes, Sleigh Belles performances
Rick Sebak
Jackie Page
Byron Nash, musician
Johnny Angel, performer
Doug Oster, plant extraordinaire
Nick Mancini, Mancinis Bakery, debuting this year’s bread holiday display
Sue Kerr, PGH Lesbian blogger
FRZY, performer
Mark Ferrari, performer
Kelly and Elista from 100.7 Star
Santa! (Pittsburgh’s favorite Santa John)

The fake parade will be livestreamed at 8:45 a.m. Dec. 11. Find details on how to watch here.

The holiday season amps up even more when the Eat’n Park Christmas tree star commercial runs.

Usually during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, too.

If you’re from Western Pennsylvania, you know what I mean.

The adorable little star trying to make its way to the top of the tree, only to miss the mark each time. Then, the tree, itself, gives the star an assist by bending itself down.

And, just like that, Christmas magic!

All the warm and fuzzies. Christmas happy tears.

The story of the tree and star began in 1982 when then-CEO Jim Broadhurst asked the company’s ad agency at the time to come up with a holiday ad that would “last for 20 years,” Eat’n Park says.

Safe to say, the commercial is the gift that keeps on giving, entering its 39th holiday season! (Read more about the star story here.)

Eat’n Park has latched onto the hearts and memories of Western Pennsylvanians and now offers everything from shirts via Steel City Brand (I own like three of these shirts — of the same design) and Eat’n Park’s store (red long, blue long, youth sizes) to video call backgrounds, phone backgrounds and even an Instagram tree/star filter!!

You can get face masks, a mug, a flipbook and gift cards with the tree!

You can go old-school and print and color the tree, too!

If you haven’t seen the commercial yet or just want to watch it again and again and again, here you go: