25 Days of Christmas- '12 Chandler Christmas Tree Lighting

Well another Christmas season kicks off with our annual tradition of heading to the Chandler Christmas Tree lighting and parade. What a perfect way to OFFICIALLY kick off our 25 Days of Christmas countdown. First we started with dinner at the San Tan Brewery. Then we immediately headed out to see Santa! This is the only Santa my kids see every year :)



Then we sat and watched some dancers perform for a bit.




Time to pose in front of the giant tumbleweed tree! What is a tumbleweed tree?? Well the City of Chandler is actually the only city in the southwestern United States that has such a tree! How is it done? The City workers gather tumbleweeds from the outskirts of the City. Between 750-1000 tumbleweeds are used to adorn a 25-foot tall wire frame. Then, the tumbleweeds are sprayed with 25 gallons of white paint, 20 gallons of flame retardant and dusted with 65 pounds of glitter. The tree is later adorned with approximately 1,200 holiday lights :)



Next it was off to the Bounce houses for some fun!








We knew the parade was gonna start in about an hour so we headed over for the FREE pony rides. This is a big hit for the girls each year.






And with some time left over we grabbed some snow cones and reserved our spots for the parade.



Its show time!! Starting with the City of Chandler, the AZ State and the United States Flags!




These were our favorite float entries.







Check out this Christmas tree made out of girl scout cookies cases!! How creative!



And the girls very favorite was the Chandler Unified School Bus Drivers float entry. This year they outdid themselves by transforming a school bus into an Elephant!



And of course save the best for last... SANTA riding on a City of Chandler fire truck!!



We had a great time! Thanks to the City of Chandler for another great event!!