While there are many Fourth of July traditions to love, one favorite includes neighborhood parades. 

Fire trucks or police cruisers lead a stream of families on bikes, in wagons and walking neighborhood streets clad in red, white and blue. 

“We’ve taken part in it every year since 2005,” Nathan Johnson said of Parker’s Stonegate subdivision parade around the community pool block .

“This is our third year to participate,” Jen Johnson said of 4-year-old Errol Flynn, the couple’s daughter. “Our oldest is in New York and our middle son is sleeping well because he’s a teenager.” 

Littleton was bustling with kids on bikes anticipating a Tiny Tour-de-Ketring Park at the annual Aberdeen Village neighborhood parade. “I don’t like big parades,” Alicia Boykin said, who watched her three children circle the quarter-mile park on their red-white-and blue bikes. 

Minutes earlier, she and her husband, Paul, were winding streamers through the spokes of 7-year-old Eden’s pink bike. “This is about family, freedom, hope and reward,” Boykin said. 

Five-year-old Bishop Corbitt described what he knew about the holiday. “It’s about America,” he said, wiping his mouth of the crumbs from a chocolate donut. “What does that mean? Is that where you live?” asked his mom, Sara, and he nodded shyly. 

Temperatures were in the mid-70’s to start Tuesday’s celebrations. Some parade-goers said they wanted to get out early just in case rainy weather moved in later.

Photos from the parade in Littleton: 

Photos from the parade in Parker: