BATON ROUGE- The annual Wedgewood Christmas parade isn't about free stuff or even Santa.

"It's just us getting together just to get our neighborhood together and have each one of our neighbors come out and meet each other and actually talk amongst each other and enjoys the parade," said Kisha Hayes.

But all of that almost didn't happen.

"Well we've been doing this parade for a few years now and this year was in jeopardy," said Hayes.

Wedgwood is a neighborhood off of I12 that is connected by the main thoroughfare, Firewood Drive. For most of this year, the Firewood bridge has been closed.

What was supposed to be a project to replace the old bridge over the summer, quickly devolved into a game of hurry up and wait.

"It's taking a little longer than expected. It took 6 months," Hayes said.

Weather delayed the project and the neighborhood was effectively cut in half Hayes almost had to cancel the parade.

"We would have had to go all the way around on O'Neal lane, Harrel's Ferry, Millerville, and that's just a little too dangerous so it' was important that this road was open for us," Hayes said.

Luckily for the neighborhood, the new bridge opened on December 4th.

"We're just so grateful that it was complete so that we could have our Christmas parade today," Hayes said.