Countywide : Floats Taking Form for Holiday Parade

Dwarfed beside a massive gingerbread house that was decorated with ice cream and candy canes, Shannon Payton, 9, put down her glue bottle and admired the handiwork that will be seen in The Times Orange County Holiday Parade in Santa Ana on Saturday.

Once she was sure that the white flowers she had stuck onto the house--actually a float--would hold fast, she grasped another batch and began again, remarking that many hours of decorating work on all the floats remained.

“They look so small on TV, but they’re huge!” said Shannon, who lives in Anaheim.

Shannon is one of several hundred volunteers scrambling to place the last floral touches on dozens of floats that will appear in the parade.

Since the beginning of the week, workers inside a fragrant warehouse on 2nd Street in Santa Ana have been blanketing the floats with thousands of fresh poinsettias, orchids, birds of paradise, mums and other flowers.

The colorful floats feature moving penguins and kangaroos as well as fanciful dragons, bright airplanes and clowns.

The 90-minute parade, whose theme is “An International Family Celebration,” will begin at 9 a.m. near South Coast Plaza.

Along with marching bands and an appearance by Santa Claus, the parade will feature 25 festive floats and giant character balloons of Woody Woodpecker, Mighty Mouse, Popeye and other figures, said parade spokeswoman Amy Baker Senna.

Grand marshals of the parade will include Disneyland Ambassador Kathleen Mitts and Mickey Mouse, retired Disneyland President Jack Lindquist and Mike Butters, defense man for the Anaheim Bullfrogs roller hockey team, Senna said.

Also serving as grand marshals will be Sagrario Gil, 13-year-old who won the Opera Pacific writing contest with a story on the Latino experience in Southern California; Maj. Gen. Paul Fratarangelo of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, and Cherokee actor Jim Elk, a member of the Screen Actors Guild board of directors.

In honor of the heroic work performed recently by fire crews countywide, more than 150 firefighters will join the parade as honorary grand marshals, Senna said.

At the flower-filled warehouse on Thursday, Shannon and her sisters said they looked forward to the parade not only because they helped prepare the floats but because they will also get to ride on them.

“It’s going to be interesting because no one at school believes my mom works on the floats. Everyone’s going to see me on TV,” said Julie Payton, 11.

Each year, about 200,000 spectators line the parade route, and more than 1 million television viewers watch the parade at home. This year, the parade will be televised locally by KNBC Channel 4 on Nov. 28 from 1:30 to 3 p.m., Senna said.

The Times Orange County Holiday Parade is now a nonprofit organization funded by more than 50 local corporations and organizations, including the Times Orange County Edition and Kaiser Permanente.

The parade will begin on Sunflower Avenue at Flower Street and proceed west to Bristol Street, then travel north along Bristol to Alton Avenue.

Parking will be available in structures east of Bristol on Park Center Drive and Avenue of the Arts, off Town Center Drive and Anton Boulevard.

Shuttle buses to the parade route will depart every 15 minutes from 7 to 8:15 a.m. from the Santa Ana Transit Terminal at Main Street and Santa Ana Boulevard in downtown Santa Ana, as well as the Automobile Club of Southern California parking area at Fairview Road and Sunflower Avenue.

The buses will return every 15 minutes from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fares are $1 each way.

For more information, call TimesLink at (714) 808-8463, Ext. 7200.