December 4, 2006 - The Parade of Hats

It's beginning to look like the holidays around Santa Barbara. Or as Nirvana would say – Smells Like Holiday Spirit. Well, they wouldn't say that exactly, or anything for that matter, ‘cause they're not really around anymore, but anyway, that's not what we started to say. The point is, that on Friday evening, Santa Barbara's annual holiday parade floated down State Street like a vision. There were marching bands and drill teams and dancers and karate kids. There were clowns and local politicos and Sugar Plum Fairies. There were buses and trolleys and even a couple of big rigs. And closing the parade, as usual, Santa made a guest appearance.

The weather was crisp, and spectators were warmly dressed. The Paraders wore everything imaginable, from regular street clothes to pajamas. But one thing we sure saw a lot of, were hats. Lots and lots and lots of Santa hats.

On Friday Night, the dedicated staff of Edhat.com loaded our clickers and cameras into the green car and headed downtown to watch the parade. As we neared the downtown area, the traffic was congested. Faint headed drivers began pulling onto side streets to find parking blocks away. We can just walk they probably said shaking their heads at the traffic. But the dedicated staff persevered – we had faith. And it paid off - there was plenty of parking in the Granada Garage.

In 2004 we went to the holiday parade to count the number Santa hats being worn by parade participants. There were 934. This year, we counted a whole heck of a lot more. There were 1,364, to be precise. When you get up to numbers that high it causes tally-clicker thumb cramps. Ed tells us that the extra pain was worth it because we identified a trend – more hats! Of course, Ed didn't actually do the counting so who is he to say.

Guesses in the contest were lower than Santa's belt after a full meal. All but two contestants guessed less than 1,364. Sarah, hip to the trend, was the closest of all with a guess of 1,275. She wins an Edhat t-shirt. The dedicated staff has been naughty the last few weeks and missed some deliveries. This week we promise to be nice – all outstanding shirts will be dropped off.

Check out the pictures from the parade.

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