Houston, TX. – The H.E.B. Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Uptown Holiday Lighting are two of Houston’s biggest holiday events, drawing in tens of thousands of guests.
With the potential for strong storms and heavy downpours on Thanksgiving Day, organizers of both events say, for now, it’s full steam ahead.
“We’re going to work around the weather. Maybe Frank will give us a great forecast. We’re just going to be waiting for that window,” said Delia Mizwa, Marketing & Communications Director at Uptown Houston.
“Thanksgiving is going to be wet, but we can live with that,” said Susan Christian with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events.
Final preparations were being made for the parade Tuesday morning with some of this year’s featured floats making their way into the heart of downtown.
The parade starts at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
“Right now, it’s more favorable than it was 24 hours ago,” Christian said.
With the safety and well-being of the crowds always top of mind, it was canceled last year due to the threat of lightning with the mayor saying it just wasn’t worth the risk.
At 4 p.m. on Thursday, all the fun starts in the Galleria area with the Uptown Holiday Lighting.
Organizers said thunderstorms may only delay the start of this holiday tradition, but not cancel it.
“We’re going to stay safe until the rain passes through and set up. We’re ready to go. It could be after 7, it could be 7:30, it could be 8 or it could be 6:45 if we find a little window in there we’re going to shoot the fireworks and get the holidays started,” Mizwa said.