She was just one of several hundred people, families, pets and children of all ages, who lined South Broad Street Saturday afternoon to watch the fifth annual Home for the Holidays Santa Parade during a unseasonably mild day.
The parade’s theme was “I Still Believe.”
Residents and visitors crowded along the parade route — which began at the corner of South Broad Street and Second Avenue and ended near Governor’s Square on Central Avenue — conversing with family and friends, taking photos, and eating funnel cakes and cotton candy while waiting to catch a glimpse of Santa and his friends that included the Grinch, Frosty the Snowman and the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.
Danielle and Jeremy Vanderpool traveled from Virginia Beach, Va., to Middletown to visit family during for Thanksgiving and decided to bring their four-and-a-half-month-old daughter, Emma, to the parade along with her niece, McKenzie, 5, and nephew, Adam, 4, and their parents, Brandi and Jason Shibley.
“We thought it would be something fun for the kids to do,” said Danielle, a Dayton native, while holding her daughter in a baby harness.
Holly Barger, who recently moved back to Middletown from Trenton, brought her 3-year-old daughter, Bellamy, dressed in a Mrs. Claus dress and red slippers, to the parade to get her picture taken with Santa Claus.
“We came last year and we went actually to a couple other Santa parades and we thought this was the best one. With the weather, gosh, you can’t beat that. We decided to dress up for Santa,” she said.
The parade also featured dancers from Broadway Bound, a bagpiper from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office; Who-Dey, the Cincinnati Bengal mascot; and costumed dogs from the Middletown Dog Training Center.
Other parade participants included costumed roller skaters from Skateway, a Middletown family dressed in American Indian and Pilgrim costumes, Middletown native William “Kippy” More singing “Believe,” Middletown Mayor Larry Mulligan, and Trenton Mayor Rhonda Freeze.
At the conclusion of the hour-long parade, Middletown firefighters parked a ladder truck on Central Avenue to place a star on top of the green awning at the square before children were to visit with Santa on the stage.
The parade is sponsored by TVMiddletown and presented by Middletown Community Foundation.
Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.
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