Christmas Boat Parade
Kemah, TX · Holiday
- When
- December 12, 2026
- Where
- Kemah Boardwalk, Clear Creek Channel · Kemah · TX
- Cost
- Not confirmed
- Status
- Confirmed from the organizer's published schedule
Hundreds of boats strung with lights cruise the Clear Creek Channel past the Kemah Boardwalk on a December evening, judged for best decorations as crowds line the docks and restaurant patios. The parade has run for more than six decades and marks the unofficial start of the holiday season on Galveston Bay. It is free to watch from the boardwalk.
The history within reach
- Christmas Boat Paradesame spot
Hundreds of boats strung with lights cruise the Clear Creek Channel past the Kemah Boardwalk on a December evening, judged for best decorations as crowds line the docks and restaurant patios.
Billed as America's largest Mardi Gras boat parade, decorated yachts cruise the Clear Lake Channel past the Kemah Boardwalk tossing beads.
The Kemah Crawfish & Zydeco Festival brings Gulf Coast boiled crawfish and live Zydeco music to the Kemah Boardwalk each spring.
White fishermen on Galveston Bay hired the Klan to drive out Vietnamese refugees who had taken up shrimping, boats burned, a man shot, armed patrols in robes.
This bayfront settlement was laid out in 1923 on land that had been part of William Plunkett Harris's Red Bluff ranch, and the name means the garden of the sea.