NORTH ANDOVER - A blocklong line for hot chocolate. Pink noses and mittened hands. Reindeer toys, candy canes and Santa hats. And of course, there was Santa Claus himself, riding on a North Andover firetruck.

It was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas as the annual holiday parade made its way through downtown yesterday.

"It hasn't felt like the holidays until now. ... Now, all we need is snow," Lisa Desrochers said from her front-row seat by the fire station as the high school band marched by. "It really gets the kids going."

Hundreds of residents lined the streets yesterday for the parade, bundled up in blankets and heavy jackets, some even hugging each other to keep warm in the chilly 30-degree weather.

The North Andover-based Clan McPherson pipe and drum band started off the parade with their bagpipe rendition of holiday songs, and Nancy Chippendale's School of Dance got everyone cheering as they did Rockette kicks down Main Street in Mrs. Claus outfits.

Firefighters and politicians braved the cold to march.

It's one of the smaller parades in the area, but full of heart, organizer Sgt. Fred Soucy said last week.

"I like the dancing," David Little, 7, of Lawrence said, as he tried to copy the moves of the North Andover Dance School troupe. "I like the Grinch."

The dance school dressed as Whos from the holiday animated favorite "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," as a Grinch greeted children along the parade route.

Then came the antique cars, beeping and revving their engines.

But it wasn't until people could start to hear the fire engine's siren that they really went wild, whipping out their camcorders and cameras from their bags.

"It's Santa, Mommy. It's Santa," said 6-year-old Kaitlyn Clark of North Andover, even before she could see St. Nick peaking out from the red truck. "Pick me up."

Mary Clark, Kaitlyn's mother, said the town could send just Santa on a truck down Main Street, no dancers or bands or cars, and still people would come.

"These kids just want Santa. The other stuff is for us," Clark said.

The town's festival committee and the police association sponsored yesterday's parade.