Local cities to ring in Christmas season with parades

November 28, 2008 03:18 PM Email| Comments (1)| Text size – +

By Anne Baker, Globe Correspondent

Several local towns will officially kick off the holiday season with parades this weekend.

Brockton will hold its 24th annual Holiday Parade on Saturday. The parade begins at 1 p.m. on Main Street and White Avenue. It runs downtown, where there will be a Christmas tree lighting. In addition to a marching band, the parade will include floats made by volunteers.

John Merian, president of the Downtown Brockton Association, which sponsors the parade., sid the parade will feature a “Christmas in Space” theme, designed around the parade’s grand marshal, actor Mark Goddard. Goddard appeared on the 1960s television hit “Lost in Space” as Major Don West and taught in the Brockton school system in the 1980s.

Merian said the day will also honor James Edgar, who the city believes is the world's first department store Santa. Edgar fist appeared as Santa in the late 1800s in his Brockton store, Edgar’s Department Store.

“The community’s into it, that’s the main thing,” Merian said.

Meanwhile, Gloucester, Quincy, and Andover are among the local cities to hold parades Sunday. Each parade has its own special touch.

At the end of the Gloucester Christmas Parade, the town will light up a tree that came from Nova Scotia, according to the city’s website. The parade starts at the State Fish Pier on Parker Street at 3:00 p.m., goes to Stacy Boulevard, and then to Kent Circle.

The Quincy Christmas Parade features a “The Wonder of Christmas Memories” theme, according to the city website. It starts at 12:30 p.m. at the intersection of Elm, School and Hancock streets, goes down Hancock, and ends at North Quincy High School.

In Andover, the parade starts at 1 p.m. at Doherty Middle School on Bartlett Street, goes over to Elm Street, to Main Street, then ends back at the Doherty Middle School.