We were in Disneyland back in February, and they were doing a parade called "Parade of Stars" or something like that. It was in the late afternoon (probably between 4:30 and 5:30). Originally, we weren't going to stay and watch it. I mean, Main Street was totally roped off, and there was hardly anywhere to sit (though it was A LOT less crowded than Main Street at WDW in the summer).
Well, we kept walking around and ended up near the entrance to DL. We saw that there was a lot of space right in front of the train station and the "Mr. Lincoln" attraction. We sat down, waited for about five minutes, and the parade started. It was wonderful (although nothing will compare to the Main Street Electrical Parade or Spectromagic in WDW), but it was great. We sat right on the curb, and the characters all came up and interacted with us...I got a great picture of Thumper that way!