Cold weather fit for a holiday fete

Annual parade kicks off Christmas season in the Triangle

The Raleigh Christmas parade is often held in such balmy weather that snowmen and reindeer seem out of place.

Not this year. Frigid wind and freezing temperatures greeted spectators Saturday morning at the annual event that ushers in the holiday season.

People bundled themselves in fleece blankets, sipped hot chocolate and comforted complaining children -- all for their yearly dose of marching bands, miniature ponies and waving beauty queens.

"The only reason I decided to brave it is because my daughter and wife are participating in the parade," said Kenneth Braxton of Durham, who was trying to calm a screaming and very cold 3-year-old. "Otherwise I'd be watching it on my warm couch."

At least one person was rewarded richly for her frost-bitten morning. At the end of the parade, Santa summoned Amanda Barbour from the crowd along Fayetteville Street. Barbour, 27, of Johnston County, climbed onto his float, and the man in the red suit handed her a diamond ring.

Her boyfriend, Thomas Lee, was waiting behind her to propose.

The couple's first date was at last year's parade, and Lee said he got the idea several months ago to surprise her with a ring at this year's event. He worked out the details with the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association, which runs the parade.

Barbour said she suspected when Lee insisted on going to the parade -- and then ushered her to a seat on the VIP bleachers.

"I knew something was going on because he's been acting kind of weird," she said before rushing off to call her family.

Other parade-goers celebrated smaller milestones.

Rose and Victor Karam drove more than two hours from Albemarle to see their granddaughters, 6 and 9, dance in the parade. "I'm so excited I'm crying," Rose Karam said as she waited for the dance troupe to make its way to the end of Fayetteville Street.

Virginia Murray was holding her year-old granddaughter, Jennifer. Her daughter held 3-year-old Adam on her shoulders. It was the children's first time at the parade.

"I'd do anything for these babies," said Murray, of Smithfield.

The parade, held every year on the weekend before Thanksgiving, has grown into one of the largest in the Southeast. About 50,000 people gathered along the 1.2-mile route through downtown Raleigh.

Nearly 125 marching bands, floats and other groups participated. Most toughed it out in their costumes, from ball gowns to sleeveless marching band uniforms, despite the cold. Mayor Charles Meeker, riding atop a car, didn't even don a hat.

For the third year, the parade featured several helium balloons similar to those in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Former Athens Drive High School baseball star Josh Hamilton, who now plays for the Texas Rangers, rode in front of a giant baseball balloon.

Many in the crowd said they wouldn't have missed carrying on a family tradition.

Seven-year-old Taylor Winstead, bundled in a furry jacket and earmuffs shaped like pink poodles, stood on the post office steps anxiously waiting for Santa.

Her father, Jerry Winstead, wore his scarf around his face to keep warm. But he wasn't complaining. He said he liked the parade better in the wintry weather.

"There's just something about coming out here in the cold," said Winstead, of Raleigh. "This is the way it's supposed to be."