Holiday Magic Fills the Streets as Cities Celebrate

Holiday parades and religious processions were the order of the day Saturday as Laguna Niguel, Santa Ana and Villa Park stepped off with their own colorful pre-Christmas celebrations.

The festivities began in the early morning, when Villa Park kicked off its annual Santa Parade, and continued into the late evening with Santa Ana’s Las Posadas procession along Main Street. But the largest event was in South County as dozens of bands, equestrian teams, organizations, clubs and celebrities entertained a crowd of more than 9,000 in the annual Laguna Niguel Holiday Parade.

In Villa Park, a Santa Claus riding a sleek fire engine crisscrossed Orange County’s smallest city before throngs of cheering children and parents. With the ambitious goal of covering more than 50 local streets, the procession began at 8 a.m. and continued until the early evening.

In Laguna Niguel, original TV Mouseketeer Sherry Van Meter was among the celebrities in the milelong procession along Crown Valley Parkway from Street of the Golden Lantern to Niguel Road. The theme of this year’s parade was “Bringing Families Together.” It featured fire, law enforcement and emergency medical personnel, including Sheriff’s Police Chief Lt. Linda Spreine, who heads the sheriff’s contract services to the city.

Other celebrities in the parade included Richard Karn, host of TV’s “Family Feud”; renowned gymnast Mitch Gaylord of the 1984 Olympics; and McKenzie Westmore, who plays Sheridan Crane on the TV soap opera “Passions.”

“This was the first year we had actual celebrities,” said parade chairman Ron Perella, who directed 3,000 marchers from a golf cart.

In Santa Ana, hundreds of children and adults attended the Las Posadas celebration at El Centro Cultural de Mexico, an event that featured bands and activities, such as construction of pinatas. Las Posadas is a Mexican Christmas tradition that reenacts Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter in Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus. Saturday’s event was a run-up to a Las Posadas celebration that continues from Dec. 16 to 24.