A Special Small-Town Santa

This past Sunday I went to my first small-town Christmas event: Santa arriving in Newburyport via the Coast Guard!

For those of you who don't know, Newburyport is the birthplace of the Coast Guard.

 Here he comes!

What good role models, wearing their life vests! 

A hilarious side note: on the boardwalk, I was sitting next to a Grandma and her Granddaughter.  There is a parade after Santa docks, so in a nearby parking lot the police were getting ready to lead Santa in the parade.  The Grandma told me, "I always love when we have parades and events like this.  It gives the police something to do."  Ha ha ha!  I do wonder what all the police do in town.  I'm sure there are drunks on Friday and Saturday nights, and there are always secret, horrible things like domestic violence.  But Newburyport is not a hotbed of crime.

Here is Mrs. Claus walking along the boardwalk after docking.  The sweatshirt Mrs. Claus's handler is wearing says "Santa's Rotary Sleigh Team."

After  docking, there was a short parade.  In the middle of the parade were costumed characters.  Here's how it went based on cheers:

Frosty: "Yay!  Hi, Frosty!"

Christmas Tree: "Yay!"

Gingerbread Man: "Yay."

And then:  "EEEEEEELLLLLLLMOOOOOOO!  YAY!  YAHOO!  (screams)  EEEEEEELLLLLLLMMMMMMMOOOOOOO!"

I'm not sure what Elmo has to do with Christmas, but he certainly stole the show.

After the parade, we all trooped over to the town square.  Yes, there is a town square!  At any given time you can head over there and see people playing the guitar, kids running around, people sitting on benches and chatting, and Scouting troops selling cookies.  Also, it's not a square -- it's a triangle.  Hm.

Anyway, I was in the middle of the crowd and I couldn't see a thing, which was very disappointing.  I'm short, so that didn't help.  Also, lots of parents had their kids up on their shoulders so the kids could see.  This actually led to an interesting conversation I heard between two dads.

Dad #1: I love this town.  It's so cool to look around and see all the dads with kids on their shoulders so they can see Santa.

Dad #2: Yep!  This may be the only town where something like this happens.

Now, there are probably more towns like Newburyport, but not many.  It really is quite bucolic here.

Since I couldn't see, I found myself wishing I worked for David Pl. Reczek, Dentist.  Dr. Reczek's office is on the square, on the second floor.  Apparently he opened the office for his employees to come and watch the event.  Lucky ducks!

Other people did the same.  Many of the buildings in Newburyport have commercial businesses on the first floor, and condos/apartments on the floors above.  It was all very 227.  (I loved that show!)

After singing innumerable Christmas carols (and it wasn't just me who thought it went on too long -- parents with small children were grumbling), we counted down from 10, and the tree lit up!  I was very glad it succeeded.  I was told that last year there were some technical difficulties that led to a very anticlimactic countdown.

I was also told that the tree is donated every year from someone's backyard.  I'm not sure who is in charge of this event, but I'm told that there is some local competition about the tree choosing.  People from the group in charge troop from backyard to backyard to choose the Christmas tree, and it's an honor to have your tree chosen.

Anyway, a couple more pictures:

All in all, it was really fun, very unique, and I'm glad I went!  And now I know to skip the parade next year, and go straight to the square to get a good view toward the front.

My first Christmas experience in Newburyport!