Photograph by Andy Kjellgren
The Children's Christmas and Holiday parade brings out many elves and a variety of Santas every year.
By Bob Aldrich
Blow the whistles. Strike up the band. It will be time for the 40th annual Los Gatos Children's Christmas and Holiday Parade to hit town on Dec. 7, at 11 a.m.
With 14 bands and more than 250 entrants participating, the 1996 parade, sponsored by Los Gatos Lions Club and the Los Gatos-Saratoga Department of Community Education and Recreation, promises to live up to the expectations that four decades of parades have aroused in the crowds that come from near and far. Parade coordinator Reed Graham anticipates 30,000 or more spectators will be crowding the curbs.
This year, the honor of Parade Grand Marshal goes not to an individual, but to a whole organization--the Los Gatos History Club, in honor of its first 100 years of service.
Dressed in old-fashioned costumes, club members will ride and walk. Longtime History Club members Thelma Rhinelander and Marcella Starry, the club's own grand marshals, will be in cars.
It was the History Club that planted the tall deodar in the town plaza on which holiday lights are strung for the annual tree-lighting ceremony. On Dec. 6, from 4 to 6 p.m., the Los Gatos Community Foundation invites everyone to the plaza to sing carols and help light the tree.
There will be food and entertainment that evening. If all goes well, Santa will arrive on a gleaming red fire engine. The foundation asks all those attending the tree-lighting to bring an unwrapped child's gift for its annual "From Los Gatos With Love" Community Toy Drive.
On Saturday, the parade starts from Almendra and N. Santa Cruz avenues, hopefully on the dot at 11 a.m. as three Honorary Whistleblowers, Los Gatos High School students Jean Weber, Joel Key and Anna Marie Arnaudo, get things moving, followed by the LGHS Marching Band.
That wild and wacky Stanford University Marching Band will be here again, very likely with some surprising new antics up their sleeves.
Elected town officials and other dignitaries will ride in sleek new autos.
Parade-marchers have usually been lucky weather-wise. Only twice in its history has the parade had to be postponed when gullywashers flooded the streets.
The annual parade's long-lasting tradition began in a quite humble way for Christmas 1956, when a small coterie of youngsters marched along Santa Cruz Avenue accompanied by the Los Gatos High School band. Over the years, the parade has grown in size and duration, taking close to two hours before it winds its way to W. Main Street and across the bridge to the Civic Center. Judging and trophy awards afterward will be announced at the high school.
Hundreds of bright-eyed youngsters representing every youthful organization, from the 4-H clubs to Indian Princesses and Indian Guides, plus many other youth and church groups will be marching in costume.
There'll be commercial and non-commercial floats on which volunteer workers have spent many hours. Floats will include entries from Green Valley Recycling, Safeway Stores, Therma Heating & Air Conditioning and A Place for Teens.
The Los Gatos Pygmy Goat Herders will march for the last time this year. Canine drill teams, antique cars, the Stuart Highland Pipe Band and equestrian teams are among the entries.
And, climaxing it all will be Santa Claus himself. The jolly old elf hasn't missed a Los Gatos holiday parade yet.
Horse-drawn carriage rides begin the evening of Dec. 6. Advance reservations are required. Call 395-3765.
The annual Christmas Cotillion, a fundraiser for the parade, will be held Dec. 14 at La Rinconada Country Club.
For information about the parade, call 354-8700, ext. 26. For cotillion information, call John Lochner, 354-7896.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 27, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved