I had a dream the other night in which an angel came to me in my sleep and told me that for my Christmas present this year, God had given me a choice of spending an hour in heaven or an hour at the Seal Beach Christmas Parade.
I said I’d have to think about it.
I have attended the parade on Seal Beach’s Main Street many times over the years during which I have worked at the Sun Newspaper.
There are times I have participated in the event by riding in an entry. Other times, I have been a spectator or busied myself behind the camera lens trying to capture its magic to share with our readers.
I remember the parade when my two children were babies and I carried them upon my shoulders so they could easily see the simple pageantry of this home-grown event that has happened every first Friday in December for the past 34 years.
There have been parade nights in which I have bumped into friends I thought were long lost to me through the confluence of time and circumstance.
I have also seen people who are friends and neighbors greet each other at the parade with a warmth that might other times be reserved for immediate family members only.
This year’s parade had the largest number of entries of any Seal Beach Christmas Parade before. The organizers did an amazing job of keeping everything moving. This included all the floats, cars, Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, Daisies and Cub Scouts, church groups, school groups, marching bands and grand marshals progressing up Main Street from the Seal Beach pier. Apparently the The Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Seal Beach Lions Club and the city of Seal Beach—who together oversee the parade’s mechanics—have honed their skills at running it very well as it has grown over the last three decades. Despite the record participation, everything seemed to go off without any major problems.
This year, I decided to try and get a look at the part of the parade many spectators never encounter. As I was scheduled to ride in the parade and I had some time to kill, I allowed my feet to take me wandering through the “back stage” area, so to speak. I walked down to Eisenhower Park next to the pier and then followed my curiosity down into the parking lot for the city’s main beach where the entry staging was well underway.
As I walked slowly, taking it all in, I saw many of the individual groups that were entered in the parade, all of them atwitter with excitement. Many were struggling to put the final touches on their decorated vehicles, or their makeshift costumes or practicing their routines that they were eager to show to the crowd of people who had come to cheer them on for their heartfelt efforts.
I saw parent leaders of little kids—cheerleaders, scouts, you name it, encouraging them to stay focused, even if that gift-wrapped box costume they were wearing was beginning to be a bit of a pain in the neck.
By and large, they were quite a stoic population. Good soldiers one and all. They seemed serious in their intent to give the best they could when their time came to show their stuff in the parade. They made me feel likewise.
Eventually, it was time for me to get to my ride and become part of the spectacle. I was glad, however, for that peek behind the curtain. It made me think I had a more clear idea of what the Seal Beach Christmas Parade is all about.
I have been to the Disneyland Christmas parade, and it’s definitely spectacular, explosive, and mesmerizing. For my money, however, it can’t hold a candle to what I saw on Main Street Seal Beach and beyond last Friday night.
Should that angel ever invade my dreams again and ask me the same question, well, I’ve made my choice.
Dennis Kaiser is editor of the Sun Newspapers.
