Robbins basking in sweet Christmas tradition

LYNN – His gingerbread house is covered with lights, he has a cooler and bin filled with hard candy, and his Christmas music is cued up and ready to play: Doug Robbins can’t wait for Christmas Eve and the city’s annual Christmas parade.The annual procession of floats, fire trucks and other vehicles crisscrossing the city has been a family tradition Robbins participated in as a boy and one he makes sure his son, Douglas, and daughter, Delainy, enjoy.Eight-year-old Douglas might be driving his all-terrain vehicle in the parade but he may also be sitting inside the gingerbread house mounted on a trailer helping his mother, Devin Robbins, and six-month-old Delainy toss candy to parade watchers.”It’s a joyous occasion,” Robbins said.Robbins’ father, Douglas, drove limousines and decorated a limousine bus every Christmas Eve that rolled along with the other parade vehicles.”It was a blast – I sat on his lap or helped him throw candy out the window,” Robbins said.His early parade memories prompted Robbins to start pulling floats in the Christmas Eve procession as soon as he could drive. He has tugged Charlie Brown Christmas trees and blow-up Santas around Lynn while parade watchers dance along with music blasting from his floats.”I’ve been pulling my own float since I was 16. When I was a kid, I always had the parade – that was my Christmas Eve,” he said.He built the trailer-mounted gingerbread house in October 2013, spending a month building and painting the float in between family activities and his job driving a tow truck. The house – complete with a chimney and miniature sleigh and reindeer on the roof – first appeared in the parade last year.Robbins entered his float in last weekend’s Swampscott Christmas parade and he plans to roll along with other floats in Nahant’s Dec. 20 Christmas parade. It will be covered with candy cane and peppermint drop decorations and Christmas lights. Robbins, who is ably assisted by Michael Hatch of Lynn, will outfit the float’s interior with a fog machine to send smoke up the chimney and a Keurig coffee maker to keep the candy tossers warm.Robbins, who lives on a side street off Broadway, and fellow parade participants assemble by 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve before the parade begins at 5 p.m. from Austin Square. He adorned his float last year with a banner memorializing Richard Viger, longtime parade organizer who died on Jan. 24, 2013.”He loved the city of Lynn,” said Robbins.He will pay tribute this Christmas Eve to his mother, Sandy Robbins, who died earlier this month. Robbins said smiles and waves make the effort and expenditure involved in the parade pay off.People dance along with the music blasting from his float and babies hug the stuffed toy bears he hands out.”Going through some of the city’s less fortunate areas, you see everyone smiling – especially the kids – for some, the Christmas parade is all they have,” he said.