Parade Brings Good Cheer To Main Street

Girl Scout Troop 518 rides on a float listing all their wishes.

Children on the Police Athletic Activities League of Cape Cod float put in a long morning.

FALMOUTH- Despite a week’s delay due to bad weather, there was no lack of Christmas cheer as hundreds of onlookers lined Main Street to cheer on friends, floats, and flipping gymnasts at the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce’s 45th annual Christmas parade Sunday.
Before the parade began the Falmouth High School Band—trumpets shining in the sunlight—hustled to line up in the Falmouth Mall staging area.
Nearby, the Falmouth Girls’ Hockey Club and the Falmouth Youth Hockey League, both on rollerblades, circled and swerved on the asphalt as they waited their turn.
Organizers herded a hockey player with a pair of antlers taped to his helmet, and motioned for the next float to inch ahead.
The Miller Mark Against Disease, or MMAD, float, a group working to help needy families, carried both humans and canines on a long yellow flatbed truck. Sara S. Bazycki of Lakewood Drive, East Falmouth, and her daughter Shelby, who is 6 and three-quarters years old and a first grader at Mullen-Hall, huddled on the float together with three squirming dogs for a picture.
Ms. Bazycki just barely saved her iced coffee from toppling over as she kept the smallest dog from escaping from the float. “We’re bringing Christmas back to the community,” she said as her float pulled forward another few feet.
Behind them Tracy R. Marks of Holland Street, Falmouth Heights, on a custom, motorized three-wheeler and the rest of the Holiday Cycles crew waited their turn.
Mr. Marks got the signal to go, opened up the throttle, and glided toward the exit across the street from the Falmouth Trade Center.
A few feet away stood perhaps the parade’s first onlookers. Angela M. Andrews of Kathy Ann Lane, Falmouth, and her 3-year-old grandson, Adonis, waved at the passing parade.
Ms. Andrews said that this is the first time Adonis can really appreciate the Christmas Parade, and they wanted to get a good spot so he could see Santa Claus.
Adonis walked in tight circles around his grandmother and waited to tell Santa about a very special toy car he wants for Christmas.
The parade suddenly lurched ahead and a hockey player did a fancy step over some iced coffee that was spilled in the parking lot. “It’s hazelnut,” the boy yelled as he avoided the stream of flavored java.

A member of the juggling troupe, the Suspenders, multi-tasks.

Sisters Marie and Helena Oldenbourg of West Falmouth Highway, both Falmouth Academy students, carried the Falmouth Museums on the Green banner.
Behind them Cipperly A. Good, the museum’s curator, said their theme was “Coming Home Through the Ages.” She was flanked by men in uniform and fishermen, while Ms. Good herself was dressed as a college student.
Up ahead the Falmouth Fire Rescue Department was represented by a color guard, a ladder truck, and a fire engine.
Cameron Medeiros, a 6-and-a-half-year-old from North Falmouth, sat in the passenger’s seat of the ladder truck and tried on a real firefighter’s helmet.
In the driver’s seat of the ladder truck, Firefighter/ Paramedic Steven P. Bush, a 1998 graduate of Falmouth High School, smiled down at his colleagues in the color guard a few feet in front of him.
Moments later, the horn blasted in the ears of Firefighter Stephen F. DeMatos and Fire Department Lieutenant Scott J. Thrasher who were holding the flags. “Quiet down in front,” called Mr. Bush from the safety of the cabin, adding, “Ho ho ho,” to enhance the Christmas spirit.
At the corner of Spring Bars Road and Davis Straits, Cam Rockwood, a 6-and-a-half-year-old in first grade at Teaticket Elementary, waved to the Falmouth selectmen, who were walking the parade route, and Fire Chief Paul D. Brodeur and Police Chief Anthony J. Riello, who were sharing a car.
Down the street a few yards, Leila Carreiio, 8, of Mashpee sat on the side of the road on the hood of a Chevrolet and sucked on a blue lollipop as the Grinch walked by, followed by Junior Girl Scout Troop 261 who were wrapped as presents.
In the group ahead, Zack Bowerman, 9, a third grader at Mullen Hall, stopped for a moment to tie his shoe and then ran ahead to catch up with his troop, Cub Scout Pack 43.
Zack ran by a group of Boy Scouts, including Peter Faubert, 13, of East Falmouth who said he likes to walk in the parade because it is fun and “you get to make people happy.”
One of the happy people was Andrew J. Saunders of East Falmouth, a commercial real estate agent and 2001 graduate of Falmouth High School, who stood near a tree wearing sunglasses and called out, “Merry Christmas.”

A dancer from Annette’s School of Dance holds up a snowflake.

A group of young women from Annette’s Studio of Dance who were dressed as snowflakes danced by to a continuous loop of “Let it Snow.”
Behind the snowflakes marched a younger group of Annette’s students, led by Annie O’Meara, 11, a sixth-grader at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod. Annie and her fellow dancers carried batons shaped to look like candy canes.
Next came Flip Flops Gymnastics whose athletes lived up to its name by flipping and flopping past Steve’s Pizzeria and More and down Main Street, where the crowds were thicker.
Near Elm Arch Way, a pair of little girls dressed as reindeer who appeared to be pulling a flatbed truck received spirited claps from spectators.
Sydney Shaw, 5, of North Falmouth, whose job it was to pull the truck for Falmouth Dance Academy said she likes to dance to hip hop best.
Near the Village Green, the official end of the parade route, a group of police officers directed traffic and the floats offloaded their human cargo.
One group that brought their own transportation was the Falmouth Skateboard Association. The boys and girls who rode on the float left the back of their truck to ride on their skateboards back toward Main Street to watch the rest of the parade.