Ideas for a Small Float for a Parade

No matter what the occasion, constructing a float for a parade is a great way to celebrate. Parade floats are a great opportunity to showcase your organization, school, cause or civic pride, and can serve to commemorate holidays and special events. Even if your float is small it can have a big impact.

A small Christmas parade float can easily accommodate a merry motif. Your float could feature an elf theme, such as Santa's workshop. You could also try decorating your float with traditional Christmas foliage, such as a Christmas tree, bows of holly, poinsettias or mistletoe. Another Christmas float theme that works well on a small scale is to decorate your float like a gingerbread house. Let the past inspire you and construct your small float to look like a festive Victorian dollhouse.

Homecoming parades are all about celebrating your school. Therefore, your small homecoming float should incorporate your school's symbols. Include your school's colors in the design, as well as the mascot. You can even make your school's mascot the central theme of your float. If it's an animal, try building your float to resemble its natural habitat. You could also decorate your small float to resemble a scene from the era when your school was founded. If your town is famous for anything, such as producing a bountiful crop or being the site of an historical event, try making this the theme of your small float.

Themes for Rose Parade floats tend to be based on recurring motifs, including children and their imaginations, past eras, adventure, nature, patriotism, and fairy tales. For a child-related theme, try making a small float with an "Alice in Wonderland" theme. If the parade's theme has to do with past eras, try and recreate a small float from the early history of the Rose Parade. As carriages were often used in early Rose Parades, this would be an ideal vehicle for a small float. For an adventure or nature theme, design your float around an exotic tale from literature, such as "Tarzan" or "The Jungle Book." These themes provide great opportunities for utilizing lots of tropical blooms. Fairy tale themes that are appropriate for the Rose Parade include "Sleeping Beauty," "Snow White and Rose Red," "The Rose Tree," "The Nightingale and the Rose," "Briar Rose" and "Little Ida's Flowers."

Pride parades are an opportunity to celebrate your town's gay community, as well as themes of diversity and unity. Try theming your small pride float around a colorful rainbow theme. You can also design your float around celebrated gay cultural icons.

A Fourth of July parade typically includes many exciting themes and motifs. Try decorating your float with flags, stripes and stars. You can also construct your small float to resemble an exploding firecracker. Founding Fathers, cowboys and pioneers are also appropriate themes for a Fourth of July float. Almost any patriotic theme will work for a Fourth of July float, and incorporating the colors red, white and blue is always a good idea.