SEBASTIAN — It’s a tradition that dates back to at least 1947, when the Sebastian City Council approved a few dollars to buy candy for a Christmas party in a city park.
On Saturday, that tradition will continue with the annual Holiday Parade, which brings Santa and Mrs. Claus down Indian River Drive to their house at Riverview Park, which the Sebastian Junior Woman’s Club builds every year.
When the parade first started in 2005, the Sebastian Property Owners Association was lucky to have six floats participate, according to City Clerk Sally Maio.
Now, the organization attracts between 30 and 40 floats. Maio credits the parade’s organizer five years running, Bruce Zingman of the SPOA, for the parade’s continued growth.
“Bruce has everything under control,” she said, also noting, “Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do.”
“I make my lists,” Zingman said, flipping through a stack of papers that had names of all the past participants and groups who he plans to get in touch with.
His core of volunteers starts working on the parade in September, sitting down with the Sebastian Police Department, the Public Works and the Parks departments, and others to make sure signs are posted, roads barricaded when they need to be, and ironing out any other details that could otherwise create wrinkles in the event.
“It’s with everybody’s help,” he said, that the parade even gets underway.
A short time before the parade day, Zingman puts the participants in order, making a point to highlight children and the Christmas spirit.
First will be the Honor Guard, then Indian River County Fire Rescue – in case they get a call for service and have to make a run – then the school groups with their banners, and the Boy and Girl Scouts, and the churches.
Farther down the queue are the car clubs and the businesses.
Anchoring the parade, as always, is the GFWC Sebastian River Junior Woman’s Club Band hailing Santa and Mrs. Claus’s arrival to town.
When Zingman joined SPOA, it wasn’t to take over organizing and running the parade.
“It just passed to me,” he said.
Ironically, he doesn’t celebrate the religious aspect of Christmas, but that doesn’t hamper his enthusiasm for the parade.
“I’m just the Jewish kid in town,” he said, later adding, “It’s Christmas. It’s for the children.”
Zingman looks at religions as a way to celebrate all good things.
“I think we’re all one,” he said of the various religious groups and denominations.
In past years before moving to Sebastian, Zingman dressed as Santa Claus for a Methodist Church in New York and read “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the children there.
“I miss doing that,” he said.
Zingman also misses out on watching the parade he puts together.
He’s too busy making sure everyone’s lined up where they’re supposed to be and that everything is running as planned.
“I never get to see that part,” he said of the floats actually traveling down Indian River Drive and the reactions from the crowd as the floats pass by.
For Micco retirees Alida and Rolf Hirschfeld, the Sebastian Holiday Parade is better than its predecessor – the Santa Sail In, a lighted boat parade that was held for years until the 2004 hurricanes put an end to them.
“You couldn’t see the boats,” Rolf said during the 2010 street parade, explaining that the boats were often quite far out from shore.
As for the newer street parade, “It just puts you in the holiday spirit,” Alida said.
Sebastian River Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Beth Mitchell agreed with the Hirschfeld’s assessment of the boat parade.
“It wasn’t very successful,” she said, explaining that the lagoon doesn’t offer protection for the boats and that they had to stay far off shore or risk running aground.
“You could hardly see them,” she said.
By comparison, the street parade offers tremendous visibility for spectators, who line up along both sides of Indian River Drive.
Many bring folding chairs or blankets on which to sit and watch.
“It’s all about community spirit,” Mitchell said of the Holiday Parade, which comes on the heels of another long-standing tradition, the Chamber’s 24th Annual Light-up Night on Friday, when businesses up and down U.S. 1 and Indian River Drive from Roseland through Sebastian invite the public in to enjoy decorations and refreshments.
The first Sebastian Holiday Parade wasn’t held along Indian River Drive, as it is today.
Instead, in 1986 and again in 1987, the city-organized parade traveled north on U.S. to Main Street to the old City Hall, according to parade organizer and then-secretary to the Parks and Recreation Department Sally Maio, who now serves as the Sebastian City Clerk.
After the parade in 1987, the Florida Department of Transportation prohibited parades along U.S. 1.
In the years following, the city hosted Santa’s Sail In, which launched from Captain Hiram’s and traveled south to the Yacht Club boat ramp.
Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004 left too much debris in the waterway to allow for safe sailing for that Christmas’s parade and organizers scuttled the event.
All the while, from 1989 to about 1999, Riverview Park was converted into the Winter Wonderland.
“That was really intense,” Maio said, explaining that the wonderland was an every-weekend-in-December event where local groups and businesses set up decorated booths like holiday storefronts.
Live trees were decorated for the holiday and competitions were held to determine the best.
“It kind of sort of fell apart,” Chamber director Mitchell said of the Winter Wonderland.
“It was a lot of work,” Maio said. “I think people got tired.”
As for this year’s parade, Zingman expects to have more than 30 floats and organizations participate and thousands of people to line Indian River Drive to get into the holiday spirit. The procession starts at 6 p.m., but spectators should plan to scope out a good watching spot early.
“Last year, both sides of the road were jammed,” Zingman said.
The children in the crowd will get to follow Santa and Mrs. Claus to their holiday cottage at Riverview Park, where they will receive a stuffed animal and get a chance to share with the Jolly Ol’ Elf their Christmas wish.
Santa plans on returning to his cottage a couple more times throughout December to take last-minute wishes and pose for photos before the big day.