A Publicity Stunt was Both a Favorite and Most Hated Part of Whitehouse, Texas Christmas Parade

East Texans look forward to their hometown's Christmas parade every year. It's a nice opportunity for the family to head out to an event together. For a family with younger children, it's a joyful experience for those kids getting to see the floats, catching some candy and seeing Santa. Those floats and other parade participants are not just there all willy nilly, they have to register to be a part of the parade and certain guidelines are set up for the participants to follow. For Whitehouse, Texas on Saturday, one business decided to pull off a publicity stunt that brought both anger and happiness among the Christmas parade onlookers.

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What Happened

Saturday, December 2, 2023, was a day full of Christmas parades throughout East Texas including Lindale, Athens, Nacogdoches, Bullard and many, many more. Whitehouse also held their Christmas parade on Saturday. Parade onlookers were very surprised by one "float" that was throwing some unusual items from their vehicle. And when I say unusual, it wasn't candy, it was pens, deodorant, used lotion and even several airplane bottles of liquor. This prompted one parade attendee to go to the Whitehouse Texas, Rants, Raves, & Recommendations Facebook group to show off what his young daughter picked up.

Who threw the bottles of liquor?

I will not name which business it was that threw out the airplane bottles of liquor at the parade because it will just give them the publicity they were so desperately seeking. A report was filed with the Whitehouse police department. A member of the Whitehouse Area Chamber of Commerce also commented in the Facebook post that the business' truck "snuck into the parade line between floats" and was not an approved float in the parade.

Anger and Laughter

As you go through the comment section, it is about 50/50 anger and laughter about this publicity stunt. Those with young children were not happy about someone throwing liquor out of their vehicle that a young child could have picked up. Others thought "He was just trying to spread the Christmas spirit in other ways..." I can certainly see both sides of this.

Response from the Business

There was a response from the what appears to be a family member of the business in question. In that response, they say they had a kid who was suppossed to be in the parade but were running late and had to squeeze in to drop them off. They got "accidently involved" in the parade and that the kid throwing the stuff out of the window didn't know what they were throwing.

Like Many, I'm Not Buying the "Accidently Involved"

There are too many weird circumstances to think this was an accident getting into the parade. Being in a company vehicle just to drop off a kid in a parade is one. This was a publicity stunt that worked to a degree good or bad. Some people will now call them to take advantage of their services while others will just find someone else. This will all be forgotten by New Years anyway.

I can see all three sides of this, the ones who were angry, the ones who got a good laugh out of it and the company that pulled off this stunt. It just adds to weird bit of Christmas parade controversary we've had in East Texas, the cancelling of the Tyler Christmas parade is the other. Never a dull moment in East Texas, right?