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Entertainment

Small towns, big doings

Both Tarpon Springs and Safety Harbor have Christmas parades Saturday, and the former plans a park festival and unusual tree lighting, too.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES
Published December 16, 2005

You'd better watch out Saturday. Santa Claus is coming to a town near you.

According to reports by tireless elves, he can be spotted at holiday parades in Tarpon Springs and Safety Harbor. And though Santa's the main man, there are plenty of other merriments guaranteed to get you in the Christmas spirit.

Here's the skinny on the big guy and all the festivities that make the season bright:

A parade, photo ops with Santa, and perhaps the world's first sponge Christmas tree mark Saturday's celebrations in Tarpon Springs.

"We have a day and evening full of family fun and activities," said Theajo "T.J." Davis, president of the Tarpon Chamber of Commerce, the parade's sponsor. "We invite everyone to come out and join us."

The Christmas parade, which begins at 10 a.m., will be a yuletide medley of marching bands, dancers, fire trucks, a pirate ship, tractors, walking reindeer, carolers, twirlers, a trolley, and Shriners and their shenanigans.

Old Saint Nick will wave from the Winter Wonderland float surrounded by music, lights, a Christmas tree and reindeer.

A winter festival will be held at Craig Park immediately after the parade. Children can have their picture taken with Santa and join in a candy cane hunt. They will receive a gift bag with coloring book, chocolates and mints. Lisa Nicole, an 18-year-old singer from Oldsmar who performed for President and Laura Bush twice in 2004, will sing holiday songs.

At 5 p.m., festivities will move to the Sponge Docks on Dodecanese Boulevard, where visitors can soak up the Greek atmosphere with the lighting of the city's first sponge Christmas tree.

"We did a little research and didn't find anything like it. We hope to have the first Christmas tree ever made out of sponges," Davis said.

The 15-foot tree will be awash with sponges, shells, fishnets, starfish and bows, she said.

During this event, dubbed Santa's Secret Shopping Spot on the Dock, merchants will offer refreshments and discounts and stay open until 7 p.m. Shoppers will be invited to sing along with Christmas carolers.

Santa will also pay a visit to Safety Harbor's 25th annual Holiday Parade, which begins at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Santa will be perched on a float called Holiday Dreams, where kids will snuggle in a bed with candy canes and gumdrops suspended over their heads.

Though it will look like a scene from The Night Before Christmas, the 32-foot-long frame of the float is actually a modified mobile home base from Jacobsen Homes in Safety Harbor, said Corinne Boyer, who is overseeing the construction.

She said the tradition of creating floats from chicken wire and tissue paper flowers has fallen by the wayside.

"It's too time-consuming and if they get wet it's a mess," she said. Instead, this float will be made from floral vinyl sheeting.

"You just roll it on," she said.

Parade watchers should also watch for Paul Tucker, who will join the parade as Uncle Sam with his Funny Ford.

The 1928 Model A Ford, painted like the American flag, was rescued from a junkyard by Tucker's father-in-law, Joseph Ellis, who modified it to execute tricks. When he died in 1984, Tucker inherited the car.

Among other things, the fenders fall off, the radiator leaks, the car backfires and clouds of smoke pour out of the exhaust.

So is this car a political statement about American automakers?

"Not at all," Tucker said. "The Ford dealers love it. In fact, Bill Currie Ford will be my sponsor for this parade."

Also look for marching bands, Scout troops, gymnasts, unicyclists, antique fire trucks, the Shriners, and a 19-foot sailboat floating down Main Street. The Grinch will be there, trying to steal Christmas.

The parade, sponsored by the city, begins on Philippe Parkway and Main Street and proceeds down Main to Eighth Avenue.

[Last modified December 16, 2005, 00:54:19]