Tag: Christmas lighted boat parade

Does Anna Maria have an annual Christmas Boat Parade? Yes and no. There has been a lighted boat parade in previous years and as spectacular as they were there were a few times when the weather forecast didn’t jive with a pleasant evening and liability risk.

One year the planned parade was postponed based on a windy weather forecast and then turned out to be a decent evening, but the rescheduled date was not so benign, much to everyone’s disappointment.

Organizing a unknown number of private boats, providing a police escort, and hoping for good weather conditions becomes a challenging exercise. Anna Maria has not held an official local lighted boat parade for Christmas in several years.

However, the tradition of a lighted boat parade along the Grand Canal and up Bimini Bay to the Anna Maria City Pier is not so easily scuttled.