Foreclosures, failures leave once-booming Manassas struggling Santa Claus rode down the streets of Old Town Manassas in Saturday’s annual Christmas Parade, waving to the hundreds of residents who braved frigid temperatures to attend. Onlookers huddled under blankets and sipped coffee and hot chocolate, cheerfully exchanging greetings of “Merry Christmas” with St. Nick.

But as the route turned onto Center Street into the heart of Old Town, the parade passed two dilapidated buildings and an empty lot on one side of the street — and the Prince William/Manassas Chamber of Commerce on the other.