A segment of Broadway in Santa Maria again filled with Christmas lights and holiday spirit on Saturday night. 

After a three-year hiatus, the Santa Maria Parade of Lights returned, boasting slightly more than 100 entries and plenty of lights.

The parade participants traveled north on Broadway from Stowell Road to Main Street, with a festival, food trucks and more available at the end of the route. 

The four Rotary Clubs from the Santa Maria Valley and Nipomo unite to organize the parade, which skipped 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and last year because of rainy weather.

The theme continues to be “Joy of Giving,” as the event also collected canned and nonperishable food to be donated to the Salvation Army. Rotarians walked the parade route on Saturday pushing shopping carts to collect the donations from parade participants and spectators. 

St. Joseph’s Church of Nipomo captured the Grand Prize Award, which included $1,000.

First- and second-place awards, for $350 and $150, also were given for seven categories, including for:

• Best use of lights among commercial entries — Lemos Feed & Pet Supply, first place; JB Dewar Inc., second place.

• Best use of lights for religious entrees — St. Mary of the Assumption School, first place; Calvary Chapel of Santa Maria, second place.

• Best use of lights for youth nonprofit group — Santa Maria Girls Softball, first place; CASA of Santa Barbara County, second place.

• Best use of lights for non-youth nonprofit — VW of America Central Coast Chapter, first place; Santa Maria 4-Wheelers, second place.

• Best use of lights other entries — Knuckles Up Adventures, first place; High Rollers Off Road, second place.

• Best band — Santa Maria High School Marching Band, first place; Pioneer Valley Panthers Marching Band and Color Guard, second place.

• Best marching group — Vandenberg Jets Gymnastics Team, first place; Encore, second place.

For at least one entry — the Vandenberg Jets Gymnastics Team — Santa Maria’s procession Saturday night meant the end of a busy 24 hours. They also performed Friday night in the Lompoc Valley Children’s Christmas Season Parade and Saturday morning in Solvang for the Julefest Parade.

Rotarians took over the Santa Maria parade 28 years ago when the prior organizer ended its role, and the parade didn’t happen in 1994. What started with one Rotary Club soon included all four because of the huge undertaking.

News Channel 12 broadcast the procession, which is available on the station’s website here.

The Santa Maria Valley will see two more parades next weekend. At noon Dec. 9, entries will travel through Old Town Orcutt, and the Guadalupe Kiwanis Club will host its city’s parade at 6 p.m. Dec. 9.