Annual parade welcomes the Christmas season
Crisp, clear night, the cadences of two marching bands, plenty of smiling faces, young and old, plus enough lights to make downtown Morgan Hill nearly as bright as day all combined to make the city’s annual Holiday Lights Parade another festive event.
“Look, Mommy,” squealed 6-year-old Katie Jones, pointing out the Magic Ship, bedecked with lights and decorations, as it carried “Santa” during the parade’s finale.
Excitement was in the air, and not only for the youngsters who walked in the procession, as parents, grandparents and friends waved wildly to the people marching as giant snowflakes, gift boxes and candy canes.
Crowds were thin in some areas, but at Monterey and First Streets, where the parade ended and the annual tree lighting ceremony was held, spectators were packed several deep. The parade staged on Depot Street, then officially began on Fourth Street, turning north onto Monterey.
The parade is smaller in both number of entries and length of route than the city’s annual Fourth of July Parade, but is filled with mostly local entries, with the exception of the PT Cruisers club from Santa Cruz, whose lighted and decorated vehicles drew laughs and applause of delight from the crowd.
For the first time, the parade included two high school bands, the Live Oak High Emerald Regime band, which later performed their competition show on Monterey Road, and the Sobrato High Swing Band in its first appearance. Sobrato’s capes swirled in the light breeze as they marched with their distinctive swing step. The 60-member band had never marched, in a parade or anywhere else, until their band camp in August.
Lana’s Dance Studio troupe had the crowd’s toes tapping, with their Rockettes-like routine. Dancers who looked hardly old enough to know what tap shoes are swirled their red skirts, while graceful young women kicked high enough to make one woman in the crowd exclaim that they should team up with the large United Academy of Martial Arts group in front of them.
The event was a peaceful one for police as well, with few problems. Streets were closed to traffic downtown from 3pm until after 7pm.
