ESCANABA — Escanaba’s 60th annual Christmas parade will bring Christmas cheer to the area Friday. The theme of this year’s parade, which will be held in downtown Escanaba, is “906 Christmas.”

Tanya Ettenhofer, a parade organizer and executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area, said this theme was inspired by other local events which had similar themes in 2018.

“It’s been kind of a consistent theme throughout the year for other events, so we decided to end the year with it,” she said.

The parade is set to begin at 7 p.m. Friday. Lineup for the parade is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. near the Catherine Bonifas Civic Center.

“Judging for the floats (starts) about 5:45,” Ettenhofer said. Prizes will be given to parade participants in two classes — Youth and Open. The first-place winners in each class will receive $200, the second-place winners will receive $150 and the third-place winners will receive $100. These prizes are sponsored by the Escanaba Downtown Development Authority.

The parade will start at the civic center and travel east on Ludington Street, ending near Escanaba City Hall. About 45 businesses and organizations are expected to participate in the parade this year.

Ettenhofer said Escanaba’s annual Christmas parade plays an important role locally.

“It brings our community together,” she said.