The 45th annual Turlock Christmas Parade will be extra-vibrant this year as ‘A Neon Night’ will light up Main Street on Friday.

A total of 87 parade entries are set to make their way west on Main Street and then north on Broadway during Friday’s evening event, according to Turlock Recreation Event Assistant Marissa Mellow.

“It’s going to be a really fun year this year. There’s a really good mixture of youth groups and businesses…also some individuals doing smaller things,” she said.

Mellow said this year is unique as there are about 50% returning entries and 50% new entries.

Along with a few new businesses participating, the Turlock Melon Carnival queens will be waving to parade attendees atop their historic float.

One of the returning entries is Emanuel Medical Center.

“Last year was the first year that we were back in it after taking several years off for COVID, and the staff just had such an amazing time. And so now we have a whole committee who comes out and works on it, and they're always excited to see what we're going to be doing and the theme,” said executive assistant to the CEO Allison Martin, who was working on Emanuel’s float on Tuesday.

The crew at Emanuel decided that the perfect “neon” themed float would be Whoville and the Grinch.

“The Grinch, obviously, is neon. And then our slogan, our theme, is ‘heart care is better together.’ And so we're going to be having our Dr. Bear mascot, and she is going to be healing the Grinch’s heart and making sure that he's all good and ready for Christmas,” said Martin.

Along with the numerous floats, antique vehicles and politicians waving to constituents, the Turlock Christmas Parade will feature six local bands, including the Marching Pride, Turlock High Marching Band, Turlock Christian Marching Eagles, Turlock Junior High band, Dutcher Middle School concert band and the Turlock High School Mariachi De Oro.

The Christmas Parade is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Friday.