Apex Kept Its Christmas Parade on Salem Street. The Street Is Still Being Rebuilt.

"The best case is everything's open and the construction's gone, but we're looking at the realities that that might not happen." Robert Carmac, parade chair for the Rotary Club of Apex, said that to WRAL in June, after the Salem Streetscape had pushed its finish into December. That's the month the parade has always used.

Five months later, the realistic case has arrived. The Apex Rotary Christmas Parade steps off Saturday, Dec. 5, at 5 p.m. on its usual route down Salem Street. The tree lighting, the Snowman Stroll and the parade all land in the same ten days. The town is holding its biggest downtown gatherings of the year on a street that's partly finished, and those crowds will be the first real test of the rebuilt Salem Street.

The options Apex considered in June

The parade has run in Apex since 1957, and the Apex Rotary Club has managed it since 2008. Organizers estimate that tens of thousands of people watch it each year. A crowd that size needs a route, and in June the route ran straight through a construction zone.

At a workshop that month, town leaders weighed three options, according to WRAL's report:

1. A modified traditional parade, with larger floats turning off before they reach the construction area
2. An alternate route that skips downtown entirely
3. A stationary parade

Mayor Jacques Gilbert ruled out the third option right away. "There's one that I'm a no go on completely: The stationary Christmas parade," he told WRAL. "I think the large majority of the community would like to see it downtown. It's important that we work from that."

Apex had a recent example of the other outcome. The streetscape work had already forced the Olde Fashioned Fourth of July, usually held on Salem Street, to change location and format this year. So the town has run a summer event off Salem Street, and it's running the December one on it.

The route, and the rule that shapes the floats

The Rotary Club's 2026 parade entry page lays out the route as follows:

• Start: the intersection of Ambergate Station and The Peakway, at 5 p.m.
• Main stretch: down Salem Street through downtown
• Turn: onto Moore Street
• Finish: the Apex Public Works buildings on Upchurch Street

The event runs from 5 to 8 p.m. Explore Apex calls it the only nighttime holiday parade in Wake County.

Entries have a size rule. Every vehicle or trailer can be at most 9 feet wide, measured mirror to mirror on vehicles or at the widest point of a trailer, and entries over the limit get turned away. That fits what town leaders described in June: the parade could still run with only one lane open downtown, but many larger floats might have to be modified, diverted or dropped. Entry registration has closed.

What the street looks like under the floats

The Salem Streetscape is a $4.7 million-plus overhaul meant to make Salem Street easier to walk, with wider sidewalks, new lighting, trees and street furniture. Work began in January. Since then, the block between Saunders and Chatham streets has carried southbound traffic only. In April, Mayor Gilbert said the project was on track to finish in October. The town's Sept. 1 update listed the construction contract as running January through December 2026.

The work has gone one side of the street at a time. According to WRAL's September coverage, crews finished underground infrastructure and pavers on the east side in mid-July. Southbound traffic then moved onto the new east-side lane while crews tore out and rebuilt the west side. A 5-foot-wide sidewalk path stayed open in front of the west-side businesses.

The latest update came at the Oct. 27 Town Council meeting. The town manager reported that:

• The decorative light poles had shipped
• Soil cells and street pavers were still going in
• Crews were building the Saunders Street gathering space
• Barricades had been moved to free up more sidewalk, and downtown businesses had responded well to the change
• Still to come were the light poles, street trees, pedestrian amenities and crosswalk improvements

Parade watchers will see the result of all that. As of late October, the poles and trees that give the new street its look were next on the list, and one side of the street had been rebuilt from the pavement down. The same meeting covered the Apex Peakway project, where water main and storm drainage work along South Salem Street was finished. Asphalt paving, brick facade work near the northern bridge abutment and the interchange ramps were still left. The parade starts at The Peakway, so both projects sit along this year's route.

If you'd like a look at what the finished street is meant to support, our earlier post on what reopens when the Salem Streetscape wraps covers the downtown roster and how the district has shifted.

Ten days of December on one street

The parade is the biggest night, but the town's holiday calendar packs much of the season into one short stretch, and most of it happens downtown.

Friday the 4th through Sunday the 6th is the busiest stretch, with a tree lighting, a parade and a menorah lighting on back-to-back days. The Snowman Stroll ties the weekend together. Its Explore Apex listing says the stroll starts alongside the tree lighting, lists the venue as Downtown Apex, 220 N. Salem St., and runs through Dec. 13. Participants collect passport stamps at participating businesses and holiday activities, and stops offer winter-themed specials and decorations. The town's Snowman Stroll page is where to check passport pickup and prize details before you head downtown.

The stroll is built to keep people in shops and restaurants after the crowds from the big events go home. On Salem Street this year, that matters more than usual.

Why the stroll matters to Salem Street businesses this year

The construction has hit downtown businesses hard. In April, a manager at Anna's Pizzeria told WRAL the restaurant was tracking a 10% to 20% drop in business. In September, Virtuoso Jewels told WRAL its business had picked back up once construction moved to the other side of the street. WRAL also reported that neighbors were still worried about the restaurants along the strip. For Virtuoso Jewels, at least, the turnaround came when the work moved across the street.

The town has repeated that downtown stays open throughout the work. It has put up signs asking people to support local businesses and urged residents to buy gift cards, visit downtown shops and restaurants, and spread the word that businesses are still easy to reach. For parking, it points visitors to an interactive parking map and the Apex Parking app. For the parade, the tree lighting and the stroll weekend, that app and the town's parade page are the places to check for parking and closures as Dec. 5 gets closer.

In practice, this December is a chance to bring crowds back to a street where downtown merchants told WRAL that customers have hesitated to deal with the construction. Small Business Saturday on Nov. 28 comes first. Then the stroll, the tree lighting and the parade give people three reasons in one weekend to walk the 5-foot path past the west-side storefronts, stop at the east side's new pavers, and pick up a passport stamp at a shop they may have skipped since spring.

Once the holiday events wrap, crews still have light poles, street trees and crosswalks to install under a contract that runs through December. As WRAL reported in September, the finished street is meant to add room for outdoor dining and other features for people on foot, and businesses are looking forward to it.

At Quin Realty Group, we follow Salem Street closely because downtown Apex shapes daily life for so many of our neighbors. If you're wondering how a rebuilt downtown could affect your home's value in the year ahead, request a free home valuation and we'll walk you through it. Our Apex neighborhood guide has more on the town.