METHUEN — Sure, jolly old Saint Nick was the star attraction of yesterday's Santa Parade.
But for 5-year-old Meghan Hoyt, it was her older brother Nathaniel that she couldn't wait to see come walking down Broadway with his Boy Scout troop.
"Is that them? Is that him?" the little girl kept asking her mom, Cindi, as just about every collection of boys and girls came around the corner toward them.
Thousands of spectators lined Pelham Street and Broadway yesterday for what spectators said was one of the biggest and best Methuen parades ever. The procession kicked off the holiday parade season in the Merrimack Valley, which continues today when Haverhill hosts its annual Santa Parade.
The weather was another star of yesterday's Methuen parade — practically balmy with temperatures hovering near 60, with plenty of sunshine.
"This is our fourth year in a row sitting out here," said Elle Sanchez, watching comfortably from a lawn chair in front of her Pelham Street apartment. "It's wonderful to see all the kids and the floats and the Christmas music. It really gets you in the holiday spirit."
Close to 1,000 children marched, along with more than a dozen school marching bands, numerous floats, at least four dance troupes, several vintage automobiles, politicians, and people of all ages dressed in their best and brightest holiday outfits.
The parade stepped off shortly after 1 p.m. from the commuter Park & Ride on Pelham Street, and wound its way along Lowell and Hampshire streets to Broadway, where the largest groups of spectators waited anxiously.
The grand marshals of this year's parade were 2009 Methuen High graduates Scott Yim, who is now enrolled at Harvard, and Madison Aleksa, who is enrolled at Boston College. Yim and Aleksa led the Relay for Life last year, raising $182,000 for the American Cancer Society.
During the parade, students solicited donations for breast cancer patients and research. Several vehicles in the parade were adorned with the cancer ribbon logo.
The theme of the parade was winter wonderland.
, which was displayed on a flat-bed truck festooned with pink, white and silver.
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