Yes, Virginia, Dumfries will hold a Christmas Parade this year.
The event will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, December 11. A departure from the past, the parade will flow in reverse, beginning at Triangle Shopping Center (home of Rosie’s Gaming Emporium), marching about a mile up Main Street to Town Hall, at 17739 Main Street.
Town leaders primarily used social media to promote the parade. The parade does not have a theme this year, states Mayor Derrick Wood in a Facebook post.
Mrs. Starr Granby, Dumfries Elementary School’s principal, is the grand marshal. The event marks the 47th year a Christmas parade will march through the town.
According to the mayor, marching bands from Bowie State University in Maryland, Eastern High School in Washington, D.C., Freedom High School in Woodbridge, and George Mason University in Fairfax will participate.
After the parade, from noon until 4 p.m., residents will be able to skate on an ice rink behind the town hall. A town first, the ice rink will also be open from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, December 12, and again Saturday and Sunday, December 18 and 19.
There will be no charge to access the ice rink, and the town will provide ice skates for residents who do not own a pair.
