Volunteers put individual roses in vials, which will then be placed on Rose Parade floats.
The 136th Rose Parade, with the theme “Best Day Ever,” will start at Green Street and Orange Boulevard on January 1, 2025. Bill Jean King will serve as grand Marshal. Three judges decide the 24 float awards presented each year, with the Sweepstakes Award being the most prestigious.
Almost everyone in the Midwest is glued to their television sets on New Year’s morning to watch the Rose Bowl Parade. There the unseasonably cold weather, with icy streets and snow are a sharp contrast to the slow-rolling floats decorated with live flowers in California.
After moving to Southern California, this editor’s mother and mother-in-law visited over Christmas and one of their wishes was to see the parade. It seemed complicated to get the tickets and the transportation to sit in the stands. I had three small children and two senior citizens, and camping out all night was not feasible. In desperation, I called the parade information line and spoke to a nice gentleman to see if he had any tips.
He suggested going towards the end of the parade, away from the stands, near where the floats turned up Sierra Madre Boulevard.
We did, carried soccer chairs, found a spot near the curb, and settled in. It was great. For many years we sat along the street and watched the floats go by—as an added bonus, we could watch the mechanical features of floats as they lowered their height to fit below the highway underpass.
One of this year’s Rose Court, Savanaah Brunston in an interview in the L.A. Daily News, spoke about how when she was younger her family camped out near that area where we sat – and how her dad would pick up donuts (I know the shop he went to), and they would watch the floats, bands and performers go by. This year she’ll be on the Rose Court’s Float, along with 82 entries that include community and corporate floats, equestrian units and marching bands.
The Army is sponsoring a float this year: its first time participating. A message went out to Ronald Reagan Post 283 members asking if they would volunteer to decorate. I signed up immediately and convinced former Village School art teacher Margot Mandell to accompany me.
Margot Mandell helped cover the “podium” with lettuce seed.
The Rosemont Pavillion where floats are decorated is immense (near the Rose Bowl). There is a tent that is just filled with flowers and shelf are lined up and labeled for specific floats. There are bins and bins of seeds, and there are fruits, vegetables and other greenery that will be used to cover floats. One of the requirements is “every inch of every float must be covered with flowers or other natural materials, such as leaves, seeds or bark.”
On the Army float, we were assigned to the lettuce-seed detail retouch. Someone had put seeds on the project, but as the float decorator explained, “It’s not even – there are holes, and I don’t want the judges to see that.” Judges are not supposed to see paint or a surface that doesn’t contain some sort of “vegetation.”
For the next few hours, we spent gluing and brushing seeds on the side of a curved wall. We filled tiny uneven spaces in the large pillar with glue and then brushed seeds onto the surface.
Mandell is an extremely gifted artist, and I feel her talents were wasted—even as she expertly made the surface smooth. Me – on the other hand – I am still picking seeds and glue out of my hair.
Others on the float were brushing on white rice and chopped parsley. One woman lying on scaffolding across from us, was patiently “painting” a flower with petals.
A woman at the “Bowl” float across from us showed me how the carnations are cut, put face down and then glue put on the petals. A hole is drilled into the location where they will be placed and then they’re placed in one at a time.
Individual carnations are placed blossom down and then glue applied to the petals. They then will be placed in the float one at a time.
Rose stems are cut, and then volunteers put one rose at a time into individual vials, which will then go on the float.
The giant alligator across from us was assembled with scales made of cactus, broccoli and Brussels Sprouts – and the toenails were pistachio shells.
The alligator paw scales are being made from cacti leaves, Brussels Sprouts and broccoli.
The Visit Mississippi float had figures of the state’s “Two Kings” — Elvis Presley and B.B. King. We watched as a worker put aluminum around Elvis hair, so that a white “piece” of natural material could be woven in.
People paid money to walk around the upper balcony to watch the hundreds of people working.
Students from San Luis Obispo and Pomona built their float together – Cal Poly has participated in the parade for 76 years.
Two large companies Phoenix and Artistic Entertainment Services plan the floats, which cost an average of $275,000 to design and build. The person who designed the Army float was John Ramirez, who also has several other designs in this parade.
This year Phoenix has 17 floats, Artistic will have 16 and all have to be done by midnight on December 30. Judging takes place on December 31.
After the parade, volunteers remove the flowers one-by-one from the floats. Those flowers are recycled and composted into mulch. Wood frames are reused if possible or they are recycled.
After the parade, floats are open for viewing on January 1, 2 and 3. This 2-mile display features Rose Parade floats after their appearance on the parade route. Each year, nearly 70,000 visitors go to Sierra Madre and Washington Boulevard in Pasadena to view the completed floats click here.
The black sea weeds have green bean veins, but we did not know what was used to make the black skin on the fish (it wasn’t paint).
(Editor’s note: Helping to decorate is a spectacular way to see the floats up close. There are jobs for all abilities from scaling scaffolding, to sitting and putting a flower in a vial, to painting signs.)
Sue, I’m glad you made it down! Our sign up roster filled up fast. When the Army PAO said they were doing it and needed help, I jumped at the opportunity to share with the Post and community. When I moved to LA in 1984, my church group went down and decorated a float, and while it seemed lame as a 14 year old, it actually made me feel connected to So Cal and I’ve enjoyed the parade ever since. So naturally I wanted to bring my daughter down at least once to experience it. Unfortunately, this was a one time thing with the Army since its celebrating the 250 year anniversary, but I’m hoping we can find a way for the Legion and community to volunteer on random floats in the future since it got such a great response!