ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Jeffrey Hutton, son of the late Nahant police lieutenant Thomas Hutton, stands by the float he built for this year’s 20th annual Christmas Parade.
BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE
NAHANT — Participants are all but lining up for Saturday’s 20th annual Christmas Parade, scheduled to start at 6 p.m. without founder Thomas Hutton.
The veteran town police lieutenant died in September. Hutton served on the Nahant Police Department for 42 years. He started the parade 20 years ago after seeing the Lynn Christmas Eve Parade and decided Nahant had to have one, too.
“We were driving through Lynn when we saw the parade and we stopped and watched it,” said his son, Jeffrey Hutton.
Nahant Police Dispatcher Roz Puleo, who helped to establish the parade and worked alongside Thomas Hutton for several years, said he originally pulled the town’s police and fire departments together to march and drive vehicles around town along with seven or eight decorated vehicles. The event quickly grew to include 70 or 80 vehicles, she said.
“People come from as far away as Rockport and Gloucester, we get some from Georgetown. It pretty much covers the whole North Shore and it’s pretty much all his doing,” Puleo said.
“It’s amazing to see from the first couple of years when it was just police, fire, some trucks to what it was last year,” Hutton said. “Last year it seemed like it stretched all the way around Nahant.”
“People will say how much they like the parade in Nahant and it’s pretty cool to say my dad started that parade with Roz,” he said.
Hutton said he couldn’t just sit back and watch the parade this year, knowing that it was the first without his dad. He wanted to be a part of it.
For the first time, Hutton will have a float behind the police cars leading the parade.
The float was made out of a trailer he typically uses to transport cars. He decorated the trailer with Christmas lights, a wreath, a Christmas tree with lights that change color, an inflatable Peanuts snow globe, and, the most important piece, a Santa Claus figurine from his father’s decoration collection.
“It was the decoration we put out every year,” he said. “Me and my dad would do it together.”
Hutton will pull the float with his jeep. He said his mom, Beverly, may be riding with him in the parade and his wife, Lindsay, and almost 3-year-old daughter, Madeline, will likely enjoy watching the parade from the sidelines.
Before the event, he will continue his tradition of meeting with friends to exchange gifts before going to the parade.
“We’ll see how this year goes but I would love to (participate in the parade) every year and help keep the tradition going,” he said.
“I would hope my daughter would be interested in helping with it,” he said. “She’s a little young now but in the future.”
The parade will form on Cliff Street between 4:45 and 5:45 p.m. Coffee, hot chocolate and chowder from Legal Sea Foods will be served at the Village Church while participants wait for things to get rolling.
The parade will take off from the staging area at 6 p.m. and will continue on throughout the town for about an hour.
From the Village Church the parade will move toward Forty Steps. The route will continue down Nahant Road to Little Nahant Road. It will follow Little Nahant Road to Wilson Road and back around to Nahant Road.
The parade will then continue onto Castle Road to Gardner Road and onto Bass Point Road up to Trimountain Road, back to Gardner Road then Castle Road. It will then turn right onto Flash Road and continue onto Spring Road. It will turn down Emerald Road, then Willow Road, up Wharf Street and Back to Nahant Road.
“There could be either twice as many or half as many (attendees) than usual without my dad this year,” said Hutton. He said he wanted to be a part of the parade and help keep it going.
“I expect there will be a few more since the parade is in honor of Lt. Hutton this year,” said Puleo.
After the parade, a gathering will be held at The Tides Restaurant for all participants.
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected].