El Cajon

El Cajon Mother Goose Parade canceled again as organizers prepare for 2024 revamp

The parade is traditionally held on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and is praised as one of the largest community parades west of the Mississippi

The big goose is laying low again this Thanksgiving.

El Cajon's Mother Goose Parade, San Diego County's biggest Thanksgiving celebration, will not happen for the fourth consecutive year, organizers announced.

But the matronly fowl isn't laying low for no reason.

The event will be reimagined as "a new classic" in 2024, according to the Mother Goose Parade Association. It's not yet clear what the new parade will be like.

"There will be no 2023 event as the team begins the process of crafting the next chapter in this fabled celebration," the association wrote on their website.

The parade was held virtually for two years during the pandemic and canceled last year altogether due to staffing and supply chain challenges.

The Mother Goose Parade is an age-old tradition in San Diego County that started all the way back in 1947!

Thomas Wigton and a group of El Cajon businessmen created the parade as a "gift from the business community to the 'children of East County.'"

For 30 years, Wigton was the owner of several ladies apparel stores in the San Diego area, according to Find a Grave, an online database of cemetery records.

The parade is traditionally held on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and is praised as one of the largest community parades west of the Mississippi.

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