Although they were each sporting bulbous red noses—and in Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell’s case, an oversized Santa hat—the competition was fierce aboard the mayoral Christmas float turned hockey rink.
Throughout the Chronicle Herald Christmas on the LaHave parade, which occured Nov. 24, Carolyn Bolivar-Getson and Mitchell played a game of minituresque shinny as they rolled along the streets of Bridgewater.
“Our float was a mini Lunenburg Country Lifestyle Centre model to show the joint cooperation between the Town of Bridgewater and the municipality,” said Bolivar-Getson, the mayor for the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg. “Every so often we would have our little scrimmage game on there. It was very competitive.”
And according to Michael Graves, chair of the parade committee, the gathered crowd enjoyed the entirety of the parade.
“It went really well. We had literally thousands of people,” said Graves. “King and Empire Streets were filled.”
The parade began at 5:45 p.m. with a costume run, followed by the rest of the parade at 6:00 p.m.
Float by float, the parade left its starting place at the Nova Scotia Community College on High Street before turning down Empire and finally onto King.
Graves didn’t have the final number of floats when contacted by the South Shore Breaker, but said that more than 40 floats had signed up in advance.
Ultimately, said Graves, the event was about celebrating community.
“When I walk the parade route, you hear people say ‘My God, I haven’t seen you in years!’” he recounted.
“I think in that sense, it really brings the community together. It just puts people in a festive mood.”
However, the parade wouldn’t have been possible without volunteers and sponsors.
Graves said the committee purchased new lights and ribbons for decoration along King Street, as well as preparing the hay bale snowmen trail.
“What we really wanted to do is to encourage people to walk downtown Bridgewater,” he said.
For her part, Bolivar-Getson wanted to congratulate the parade committee for their work.
“I want to thank everyone who had floats in the parade and came out to watch because it was a good event,” she said.
When asked who won the hockey game, Bolivar-Getson couldn’t help but laugh.
“I believe it was a draw at the end,” she said diplomatically.
The Chronicle Herald Christmas on the LaHave parade has been an ongoing event since 2007.