Tips on doing the Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis

I realized my youngest daughter had never really seen the Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis, so seeing a note that light rail rides would be free, I decided she needed to experience of one of the perennial Minnesota holiday traditions.

I think the last time our family checked it out was like 13 years ago, when our kids were like 7 and 5. The youngest one, now, 13 had never seen it.

The best part about it: it's not long, 30 minutes tops. Drawback, if you don't get spots early in the skyways, you have to squeeze in or stand in the cold if it's a cold night.

It's probably better viewed from the street but there are about four skyways you can view it from and there's a long verticle skyway that goes along the street at the downtown Target store.

But people get spots at skyways, and they rope them off so people can still move through them 1 to 2 hours ahead of the 6:30 p.m. start. The parade runs Thursday through Sunday every weekend until Dec. 18, I believe.

So you've really only got one more week to check it out.

The parade is cool. People walking wear suits with Christmas lights all over them. They have four or five big floats, all lit up and of course, a Santa float. (see picture).

With little kids, I'd almost recommend getting a hotel room and hanging out in the Twin Cities for a day or two.

We took the light rail in at 4 p.m. but it wasn't so crowded we couldn't sit down. We park at Ft. Snelling, but a lot of folks park at Mall of America, the first stop on light rail going back into Minneapolis.

We got downtown about 4:35 p.m. Walked about six blocks to The Local, an Irish pub/restaurant with reasonable prices for Minneapolis.

We got seated right away about 5 p.m., though with parties more than 2, I'm guessing there was a bit of a wait. We ordered a "sharing" plate of four pulled pork mini sandwiches with apple cole slaw on them and fries. $12. Beer was $5 a glass. A nice irish ice cream treat was $3.

Because air temp was like 17 degrees, we snuck into the Target skyway watch and squeezed in a spot at 6 p.m.

Place was packed after the parade, but caught light rail and did get a seat again. Back home to Grandma's in Eagan by 8 p.m.

A fun experience. My daughter enjoyed it immensely. I didn't mind it myself.  A nice Minnesota holiday tradition.

She also enjoyed the big city seeing huge tree at IDS center and guys with spiked hair, or yeah, and the Tibetan protestors were walking along Nicollet Mall about an hour before the parade.