Texas town gives Houston Holiday Parade floats a new home

HIDALGO, Texas -- It was the last place KHOU 11 News expected to find Santa’s sleigh.
The iconic carriage was covered with a tarp under a carport in Hidalgo, Texas.
The Houston Festival Foundation sold the sleigh and four other floats to the border town which cherishes parades.
Hidalgo Assistant City Manager Kay Wolf found them for sale online.
“If you could have seen my face, you would have known I was excited,” Wolf said.
The giant moving turkey and toy floats that amazed the masses in Houston now had a chance of doing the same in the Rio Grande Valley.
Hidalgo's dreams came true when they purchased the five floats for $30,000 – a great deal, according to Wolf.
The price was $100,000 less than the Houston Festival Foundation paid for them.
The foundation announced this week it was having severe financial trouble and needed the cash.
Parades in Hidalgo are treated like rock stars.
Resident Jaime Gaona said people yell and scream their lungs out at the parade that takes place every December 1.
J.J. Herrera, Hidalgo’s float guru, led the caravan of floats from Houston to the Valley.
Crews covered the floats with tarps and drove 30 miles an hour.
It took the convoy 13 hours to get to the valley.
They might have moved a little faster, but they had to fix three blowouts along the way.
Herrera said people are going to say “wow” when they see the new floats.
They were dismantled and covered with tarps in the City of Hidalgo in the meantime. They sit next to a sea of other floats in garages made by hand.
Herrera said he plans to add lights, new paint and a whole lot of love to the newly acquired floats.
Hidalgo’s Festival of Lights is estimated to have 3 million lights. There will no doubt be a few new stars that will outshine all the others this December.