Thousands Gather In Downtown Tulsa For Annual Christmas Parade

It takes an army of people to pull off Tulsa's Christmas parade every year.

People like Wayne McCoy are one of the people who make it happen.

For 96 years, thousands have lined the streets of Downtown Tulsa for the Tulsa Christmas Parade.

Employees of American Waste Control help put together this big parade and showed News On 6 exactly what it’s like putting together some of the popular floats.

McCoy is an engineer and for the last seven years he's been the mastermind behind some of the floats you see during the parade.

"I would have to say the Santa float because it’s the biggest most massive float. They used to do Santa on a semi flatbed, and I just really wanted to build this one to make it really extreme and big where it takes up the whole street," said McCoy.

Wayne said he adds a lot of details to these floats and over the years, he's added some cool features to make them look more interesting.

"I just added this little owning to make it look like a snow drifting up over a cliff, to give a launching for the reindeer to come up off of. That's the only modification I’ve actually made that’s visible," said McCoy.

Wayne said he was able to eliminate the sound of an engine coming from the massive float so the crowd can hear speakers playing Christmas music.

Colleagues who work with Wayne say he's very creative and it's interesting see how he revamps the floats every year.

"This whole float is by his hands. He's the one who really developed this, so we affectionately call him Buddy the Elf from the movie Elf because he really did put together Santa’s sleigh," Jeff Faust, Barracuda Staffing and Consulting.

Wayne said he loves doing this every year because he enjoys seeing the reactions on people's faces.

"I want people to be able to have an hour of putting their mind at ease and to not have to worry about life," said McCoy.