NAHANT — Nine-year-old Nahant residents Lilly and Nikki Carr made sure they had a prime spot to watch the festivities this Saturday for the town’s 24th annual Christmas parade.
The twins and their mother, Catherine, stationed themselves at the very end of Cliff Street, making them the very first of the procession’s onlookers. The family attends the parade every year and said they were excited to wave to friends who would be driving by on their own floats.
“We love it, we absolutely love it,” Catherine said. “It’s a tradition. We come here every year and kind of walk back and forth, and we are the first ones.”
She said part of the reason they chose this location was because its position at the very beginning of the parade route generally means all of the floats have yet to dig too deep into their candy supply.
“We like getting the candy and seeing the trucks,” Lilly said.
Nikki added: “we like yelling ‘merry Christmas’ to all of them.”
Roz Puleo, the parade’s organizer and the retired dispatcher for the Nahant police, said the parade — started by the late Lt. Thomas Hutton of the Nahant Police — continues to be a tradition the entire town looks forward to because of its ability to bring the community together.
“The kids just love it, and the families love it,” she said. “They plan their parties around it. People will be calling me around September, October, to find out when the parade it so they can plan ahead.”
She added that families and businesses from neighboring towns also go all-out decorating myriad cars, cruisers, trucks, and engines for the big event. Lynn Selectman Jay Walsh, who organizes Lynn’s Christmas parade every year, usually lends a few of Lynn’s floats for Nahant to use for its parade as a gesture of goodwill.
“We have police cars from all over the North Shore join in … we look forward to it every year. The whole town looks forward to it,” Puleo said.
Lynn’s John Brennan of Brennan’s tree service was there in his station wagon decked-out in evergreen branches, dangling ornaments, and multi-colored lights. He said he and his family usually participate in Lynn’s annual holiday parade, but this was their first year trying the Nahant circuit.
“We just hang whatever we have and make it as festive as possible,” he said of his vehicle’s over-the-top decorations. “It’s a lot of fun. It brings people a lot of cheer.”
He added: “We just put forth a lot of effort and go for it.”
