Co-Opted Cookeville “Witchy” Christmas Parade Cancelled After Community Pushback

Image Credit: Historic Downtown Cookeville / Facebook & Canva

The Tennessee Conservative [By Olivia Lupia] –

The Cookeville Christmas parade has become an unusual source of news as the event has cycled through several iterations and sponsors, including the city of Cookeville, local churches, the LGBT community, and even members of the resident witch coven.

The parade has historically been hosted by the Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce, but the group backed out over a controversy surrounding an LGBT Pride float that was disallowed in the 2023 parade. 

To ensure the community could still enjoy the annual tradition, two local churches offered to take charge of the parade’s organization and included a statement of faith in their application process asking parade participants to acknowledge some core tenants of Christianity including God’s design for families, sexuality, and the sanctity of life.

Their efforts to keep Jesus the central focus of the parade angered progressive members of the community who then retaliated by launching an initiative to host their own parade, dubbed the “Holiday Gay Pride Parade of Cookeville,” by a local resident.

Backlash To Group Trying To Organize Christ-Centered Christmas Parade Spurs “Inclusive” Community Members To Put On Rival “Holiday Gay Pride Parade”

Local media outlets also refused to broadcast the churches’ parade, and the City of Cookeville, in conjunction with the mayor’s office, wrestled responsibility for the parade away from the churches to avoid further controversy and planned the event for its original date of December 14^th.

Despite promises that the parade would remain a family-friendly event, the new parade committee included the President of the Cookeville Inclusive group, and two local business owners had direct input.

All of whom have made no secret about their ties to the pagan and “witchy” communities. Some floats expected in the parade were sponsored by Upper Cumberland Pride, Queer Closet, and the occult shop The Tiny Cloak.

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In response, members of eighteen interdenominational local churches and businesses rallied to organize a huge birthday party for Jesus to be held on December 21, planning several fun activities like worship, a gospel birthday cake, games, a bounce house, a live Nativity, and even a broadcast of the Tennessee Volunteers vs Ohio State playoff game.

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Residents also continued to express their displeasure with the city’s treatment of the conservative community, with some even announcing plans on social media to boycott the parade entirely.  

Originally scheduled for Saturday evening, the city of Cookeville announced the parade would be rescheduled to the night of Monday, December 16th due to rain and high winds.

Then Monday morning, they announced the parade would be cancelled completely, citing inclement weather again. However, some residents are attributing the cancellation to the concerted efforts by churches, conservatives, and other organizations.

Many Facebook comments seemed to agree that the weather was merely an excuse to cancel an “inclusive” parade after conservative and Christian pushback. One user wrote, “Just say you don’t want to hold an inclusive parade”, while another said, “I’m sorry your church fanatic constituents made you so afraid of holding an inclusive event that you took the weather as an excuse to give up.”

An anonymous source who has been actively involved behind the scenes in the parade battle with the mayor and the witches provided a quote to The Tennessee Conservative about the parade’s cancellation, encapsulating the general sentiments of those who understand and celebrate the true Reason for the Season, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

They wrote, “I believe the city of Cookeville moved the date from Saturday to Monday and then did a final cancellation due to the mounting pressure from the grassroots, the churches, and outlets like you guys [The Tennessee Conservative] and the Pamphleteer. Rain was already forecasted for Monday at the time of the rescheduling. I think the real reason is that the city knew they were going to have extremely low turnout and are using the weather as an excuse to make themselves look better. The mayor and the council know they betrayed their voters. They were simply hoping their voters would be too busy with Christmas time to notice. That was a major miscalculation and Cookeville won’t forget anytime soon that the council appointed witches to organize a CHRISTmas parade after bullying churches to back out.”

Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.