As of mid-October 2026, no Mother Goose Parade has been announced for El Cajon. Nobody has posted a date, a route or a group in charge. If the old schedule still held, the parade would run on Sunday, November 22, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Nothing is planned for Main Street that afternoon.
The city's holiday kickoff is still happening. It now falls on the first weekend of December and is split between two events, each run by an organization with staff and a budget. The parade was started to do a specific job, and those two events now do it.
Where the Revival Stands
Hopes for 2026 came from a FOX 5 San Diego report from September 2025. It said posters with a QR code linking to a revival petition had been appearing around El Cajon, and that Mayor Bill Wells supported bringing the parade back. FOX 5 described the goal this way:
"The community hopes to see the parade return by Thanksgiving 2026, marking nearly 80 years since its inception."
The latest update from the petition organizers is dated June 30, 2025. It said the effort had drawn interest from people it didn't name. It gave no organizer, plan, schedule or sponsor.
Neither public calendar that would carry a parade lists one. The 2026 events page from Downtown El Cajon Business Partners shows Holiday Lights and no parade. The City's seasonal listing for Parks and Recreation features Winter Wonderland. Something could still be announced. But a parade on the scale El Cajon once ran usually needs months of entries and permits, and five weeks is a short runway.
What the Parade Was Built to Do
FOX 5 tells the origin story. A local businessman started the parade in 1947 as a gift to children and as a way to draw shoppers before Christmas. It grew into what the station called "the largest holiday parade west of the Mississippi." The date was always tied to holiday shopping. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the only earlier interruption came in 1963, when the parade was postponed.
The last in-person parade on the City's calendar was Sunday, November 24, 2019, from 1 to 3 p.m. It ran eastbound on Main Street from El Cajon Boulevard to First Street and Madison Avenue. That stretch of Main Street, at the same point in the calendar, is now home to a different kind of event.
Seven Years, Year by Year
| Year | Mother Goose Parade | What happened instead |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | In person on Main Street, Sunday, Nov. 24 | |
| 2020 | Virtual | |
| 2021 | Virtual | |
| 2022 | Canceled, citing staffing, logistics and supply-chain problems | |
| 2023 | Canceled; the city manager said the association called itself defunct | |
| 2025 | Revival push reported in September; no parade found | Downtown Holiday Lights, scheduled for Nov. 29 |
| 2026 | Not announced as of mid-October | Winter Wonderland on Dec. 5, Holiday Lights on Dec. 6 |
The pattern in the table is about who runs the event. The Union-Tribune identified the El Cajon Valley Mother Goose Parade Association as the nonprofit behind the parade. In 2023, Times of San Diego reported the city manager's account. The association had said it was finished and offered to pass along its know-how if another group took over. Nobody had come forward, and the City didn't have the capacity to run the event itself. East County Magazine reported that the California Secretary of State still listed the association as active at the time, though it hadn't filed since 2020.
The September 2025 revival coverage showed public support and support from the mayor. It didn't name a group that would take over the parade's operations.
What a Street Event Costs, Set Side by Side
A few numbers show the scale. According to Times of San Diego, drawing on East County Magazine's review of tax filings, the parade association reported $73,646 in revenue and $62,580 in expenses in 2019, its last in-person year. The same report cited falling participation and sponsorships.
For comparison, a November 2025 Downtown El Cajon Business Partners board packet records a unanimous board vote approving a not-to-exceed Holiday Lights budget of $40,000. Holiday Lights is a stationary event in one plaza, so it's smaller than a parade by design. It also has a standing organization behind it that holds board meetings and reviews staff feedback afterward. The February 2026 packet includes a section titled "2025 Holiday Lights NCA Staff Feedback." That kind of continuity keeps an annual event on the calendar.
The Weekend That Took Over the Job
In 2026, the holiday kickoff runs over two consecutive days at two locations.
Saturday, December 5: Winter Wonderland at Wells Park, 9 a.m. to noon. This is the City's annual event, and every activity is free:
- Breakfast with Santa
- A movie in the park
- Train rides
- Bounce houses
- Photos with costumed characters
- Arts and crafts with the El Cajon Rec Squad
The City notes that some activities may be canceled in bad weather and lists (619) 441-1754 for questions.
Sunday, December 6: Holiday Lights in Downtown El Cajon, 3 to 7 p.m. The free event has a microbubble Snow Zone, live music, kids' train rides, photos with Santa and an artisan market with local vendors. It closes with a 6:30 p.m. tree lighting in Prescott Promenade, led by Mayor Bill Wells. The event page's sponsor section still lists 2025 partners, including the City's recreation department and U.S. Bank, so 2026 sponsors haven't been posted yet.
There's one scheduling wrinkle. Downtown's own February 2026 calendar listed Holiday Lights for Saturday, November 28. The current public event page says Sunday, December 6, and doesn't explain the change. December 6 is the newer date, but check the Downtown El Cajon events page the week before.
The parade's other purpose, getting shoppers into local stores, has its own program now. Downtown El Cajon's Small Business Season runs from Saturday, November 28 through Thursday, December 24. That puts the start of downtown's holiday shopping push on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, close to where the parade's Sunday before Thanksgiving used to sit.
How to Plan Around It
For families who used to stake out a spot on Main Street, the closest swap is a two-stop weekend. Saturday morning at Wells Park is built for younger kids, with breakfast and bounce houses done by noon. The Sunday afternoon tree lighting downtown is the closest thing left to a whole-town gathering, with the mayor in Prescott Promenade at 6:30 p.m. Small Business Season covers the shopping side for the four weeks before Christmas.
If a Mother Goose revival group goes public with an organizer and a date, it will have taken the step that has been missing since the City said in 2023 that nobody had come forward. Until that happens, the season begins at Wells Park on December 5 at 9 a.m.
If you're thinking about selling after the holidays, Lyle + Grace Team can walk you through what an El Cajon listing looks like from January through spring, so you can enjoy this December and still have a plan ready. Sell Your Place with Lyle and Grace.
