The International Arts Festival in November is launched with a street parade. Henry Bastos of www.gamcultural.com leads the San José Art City Tour once every other month.

The Oxcart Festival (Festival de las Carretas), along Paseo Colón, in November, celebrates traditional rural life with a parade of dozens of oxcarts (carretas).

The Festival of Light (Festival de la Luz; mid-December) is a Christmas parade along Calle 42 highlighted by floats trimmed with colorful Christmas lights (6–10 p.m.). The lighting of the Children’s Museum (Calle 4 and Ave. 13, tel. 506/2238-4929, www.museocr.org) in early December is an annual tradition, with fireworks and thousands of lights.

The annual running of the bulls occurs during Christmas and New Year’s at the fairground in Zapote with a tope (horse parade) and bull riding and taunting. There’s a special tourist-only section with fireworks. It coincides with a massive tope each December 26, when as many as 3,000 men and women ride down Paseo Colón and downtown.