Last Friday, the 60th Annual Downtown Holiday Parade showcased “A Diamond Holiday on State Street.”

The parade, sponsored by the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization, featured more than 70 entries and more than 3,500 participants that included magnificent marching bands, fabulous floats and spectacular performance groups, the grand marshal — Olympic gold medalist Kami Craig — the Holiday Prince & Fairy and, of course, Santa Claus.

With more than 50,000 spectators, this was the most spectacular holiday community event.

The 2012 parade winners are:

» Most Inspirational, Grand Prize — Los Prietos Boys Camp

» Most Creative — Lemos Feed & Pet Supply

» Most Spirited — San Marcos High School Marquettes and cheer teams

» Best Performance Group — Young Singers Club

» Best High School Band — San Marcos High School

» Best Junior High School Band — Goleta Valley Junior High School

» Best Elementary School Band — Bravo Santa Barbara Unified School District

» Best Drill Team — Goleta Valley Junior High School

The Downtown Organization would like to thank Southern California Edison for donating the Community Holiday Tree and the city’s Public Works crew for installing it at State and Victoria streets. A special thanks also goes to Ben & Jerry’s, Business First Bank, Canary Hotel, City of Santa Barbara, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Hotel Santa Barbara, the Goleta Lions Club, KEYT, KJEE, MarBorg Industries, Montecito Bank & Trust, Pascucci, the Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center, Rincon Broadcasting, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Santa Barbara News-Press, the Santa Barbara Independent, The Towbes Group, Tri-Valley Trophy and Wheels and Waves for their generous sponsorships and contributions.

Next year’s parade is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, 2013. For more information, call the Downtown Organization at 805.962.2098 x22.

— Ashleigh Davis represents the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization.