Aldergrove's annual Christmas parade will go ahead on Saturday, Dec. 21, organizers announced. That's one week after it was cancelled because of a windstorm.

Alyssa Nielsen, president of the all-volunteer Christmas committee, delivered the good news on Monday, describing it as a "measure of our love for the community."

"We have looked at the weather forecast and at the time that we made the decision to go ahead, it was actually the nicest weather day going," Nielsen told the Langley Advance Times.

"It is calling for rain at this point, but we can handle rain," Nielsen added. 

"High winds are what forced us to cancel the event," she explained, with gusts of close to 100 km/h.

Thousands in Langley and nearly all of Aldergrove lost power Saturday morning due to the windstorm, which also forced the shutdown of the holiday lights drive-through display in Williams Park.

Volunteers spent more than two hours trying to set up tents and barricades for the party, but the high winds were too much, Nielsen said.

"We were trying to set up the event, and we had tents blowing all over. It was actually incredibly dangerous."

The 20x20 tent for the hot dogs couldn鈥檛 be put up, Nielsen said. The Township of Langley stage was delivered, but the crew said it was too hazardous to put it up.

Neilsen said the volunteers who organize the event would rather err on the side of caution, commenting  she personally "would much rather be standing in a place of disappointment than regret."

"If one child or member of our community was injured by coming out to this event, I鈥檇 never sleep again,鈥� Nielsen shared.

Party and parade times have not changed, Nielsen advised.

The party will run 4 to 6 p.m. at 272 Street and Fraser Highway, with the parade going 6 to 7 p.m. on Fraser Highway from 270 to 273 Streets.

"A heartfelt thank you to the Township of Langley and Township Traffic Ltd. for their quick responses in providing critical permissions, permits and logistics needed to make this happen," Neilsen said.