For the first time in the parade's 20+ year history, and for the first time in St. John's parish history, an Orthodox church had a major presence in the local, well attended - and cold! - mile long Christmas parade down Main Street.

Greetings of "Thank you!" and "It's great to see you here!" greeted the two dozen-plus marchers as we in turn greeted the locals with St. Nicholas Day and Nativity greetings.

As one of St. John's Readers put it: "We can only do so much to bring people to the Church. So, to those that won't come, or don't know about us, we brought the Church to them! Some many people made the sign of the Cross. I heard some of the older generation explaining to the younger un-catechized generation who was depicted in the icons of the Theotokos and Christ. I was able to see the thankfulness, joy and surprise of many of the spectators. I believe we did a wonderful thing today. Not only as something for us as a parish, but as an outreach to all those hungry souls."

We are already planning next year's float! For more pictures, click here to see the entire photo gallery.