County Residents to Parade Their Holiday Spirit in Weekend Events

Ventura Harbor residents Dotty and Robert “Flash” Wheeler have participated in a Christmas boat parade each year since 1969. This weekend, the 40-foot trawler they live on is decked out with four reindeer, toy soldiers, a dinghy with a Christmas tree and lots and lots of lights.

Sixteen-year-old Melissa Chigaridas, a junior member of the Westlake Yacht Club, and her friends have their parade entry shipshape--after spending hours gluing hundreds of lights to a circular “earth” made of plywood for their “It’s a Small World”-themed craft.

And a 19-foot powerboat owned by Ventura’s Mike Stephenson boasts a job-related motif. The chimney sweep’s vessel is complete with a Christmas-stealing Grinch emerging from one chimney with his booty, a second chimney with fake smoke and 10 strings of multicolored lightbulbs.

“It’s neat watching the parade from the inside out,” he said. “You’ve got to take your chances though. The second parade I was in, it was pouring down rain and we were cruising around in wet suits.”

Fortunately, rain is not in the forecast, although there may be a seasonal chill in the air for those attending a pair of lighted Christmas boat parades in Ventura County this weekend.

More than 25 glistening vessels will circle Ventura Harbor twice beginning at 7 tonight in the 20th annual Parade of Lights. And Sunday at 6 p.m., Westlake Lake’s smaller community-oriented event will leave the dock.

And next weekend, Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor stages its 31st annual holiday boat parade.

Landlubbers may also take in two other Christmas parades today: Oxnard’s third annual downtown event begins at 10 a.m. at C and 9th streets. In Fillmore, the city’s holiday parade begins at 4 p.m. at Central Avenue and 2nd Street.

For good measure, scores of Moorpark residents will gather at 2 p.m. Sunday outside City Hall for dancing, singing and a tree-lighting ceremony.

But it’s the high-wattage Ventura parade that’s expected to draw the largest crowd--an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people, depending on the weather.

Usually held during the third weekend in December, the parade has been moved forward because of the usual date’s proximity to Christmas this year. That has meant leapfrogging the Channel Islands Harbor Parade of Lights, to be held Dec. 14 at 7 p.m., but parade organizers play down any talk of rivalry.

“The only rivalry we’re in is for the dollar,” said Judie Amendola, Ventura Harbor Village marketing director.

Ventura’s festivities begin at 4 p.m. at the village, on Spinnaker Drive west of Harbor Boulevard, with holiday entertainment and activities for kids that will include pony rides and a petting zoo. Santa Claus will fly over the harbor in a helicopter to signal the start of the parade.

Although the number of boat entries is not expected to hit the 1980s peak of more than 60, boat entries are beginning to pick up once more now that the economy is improving, Amendola said.

Westlake Lake’s parade is decidedly smaller--10 to 15 vessels are expected to take part, said Richard O’Linn, the yacht club’s rear commodore.

But the event is expected to be a glowing spectacle after the meticulous preparation by participants such as Melissa. However, the teenager said she will not be riding on the boat during the parade.

“I rode the first year and I froze,” she said.

The parade, which this year has the theme “Holidays Around the World,” assembles at 5 p.m. at the yacht clubhouse, 32123 Lindero Canyon Road in Westlake Village. Judging is at 5:30 p.m.

Like Ventura’s waterborne procession, Oxnard’s pavement parade is also growing, said organizer Carol Lavender, executive director of the Greater Oxnard and Harbors Tourism Bureau.

This year, 56 entries are scheduled to trundle down the nine-block parade route, including members of the Palm Springs Suns minor league baseball team on golf carts. The team is attempting to move to Oxnard in 1998.

Three high school marching bands--up from just one last year--will provide the mobile musical accompaniment.

The Oxnard parade’s theme is “Hollywood by the Sea,” a nod to what organizers call “the area’s rich history as an entertainment mecca.” Lavender notes that movie stars including Clark Gable have spent time in the area and that scenes for television’s “Melrose Place” are often shot at the harbor.

“Unfortunately we have no actual recognizable celebrities who will be in the parade,” she said. The grand marshal will be aspiring Oxnard singer Ixya Herrera, who just recorded her first album with a record company in Beverly Hills.

The parade will head up C Street to 3rd Street and then go back down B Street to Plaza Park.

Fillmore’s 16th annual parade will follow a day of holiday activities. A Santa Express leaves at 9:30 a.m. from its downtown station for a Christmas tree farm where people may cut the pine of their preference and have it hauled back to town on the return trip.

From 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., about 20 craft and food booths will be set up in Central Park, along with live theater on the steps of City Hall.

The town’s Christmas tree will be lighted at 6 p.m. after the 4 p.m. parade.

Times correspondent Anne Louise Bannon contributed to this story.