Celebrate the holidays at the Christmas Boat Parade and Grucci Fireworks show, Huntington Parade of Lights
The Christmas Boat Parade lights up the Connetquot River in Oakdale. Credit: Thomas J. Lambui
It’s time to deck the halls — make that “deck the hulls” — for the annual Christmas Boat Parade and Grucci Fireworks show on the Connetquot River.
More than 20 brightly decorated power boats and sailboats join the floating parade along the Connetquot riverfront on Saturday, Nov. 25. Hundreds of spectators are expected to watch from patios and panoramic windows at restaurants and bars along the boat parade route.
“You see the whole array, from Santas on boats to an inflatable dragon with a Christmas hat,” says Robert Dallas of Oakdale, an attorney who serves as the parade’s “boat wrangler.”
A GLOWING TRADITION
“It’s pretty incredible how creative these people get,” Dallas says of the parade, first held eight years ago, when five participating boats included a kayak wrapped in strings of Christmas lights.
This year’s fleet includes 21-foot center-console fishing boats and 42-foot sport fishers with a rainbow of lights running up their tuna-spotting towers. Many skippers blast holiday music from onboard speakers, Dallas says. He’ll be aboard the Happy Days, a 100-year-old, 35-foot, all-wood sailboat glittering with icicle lights from the hull to the sails, with an evergreen tied to the bow.
GRINCH ON BOARD
June and Howard Siegfried of Farmingville are reprising the green-and-red-winged inflatable dragon on the roof of their 33-foot Viking cabin cruiser, and adding a Grinch inflatable to their display.
“Everybody’s going to be dressed like the Who people from Whoville,” says Siegfried, who works as a 911 operator for the Town of Southampton. Siegfried says her husband will be dressed as an elf, and she’ll be wearing a Who people hairdo, with a bow on top.
The colorful night concludes with a 7 p.m. Grucci fireworks show, set off from a barge in the river. Scott Cooper, the Bellport-based company’s director of business development, said the 10-minute show is “based on the holidays” with effects including “green and red falling leaves, red and gold willows, blue and silver crossettes and a Grucci Grand Finale consisting of a barrage of red and green high aerials.”
Here are two venues where you can drink and dine while the parade passes by:
The Snapper Inn
500 Shore Dr., Oakdale, 631-589-0248, thesnapperinn.com
COST $100 advance purchase includes parking and $75 voucher for dinner and drinks at the inn.
Sip house-made hot chocolate or rum-spiked eggnog on the lawn behind the waterfront restaurant. A firepit and portable heaters will warm the crowd. Afterward, an a la carte dinner menu of prime rib, filet mignon and seafood platter will be served in the dining room.
View
3 Consuelo Place, Oakdale
631-589-2694, viewoakdale.com
COST $25 per car parking ($20 prepaid), maximum of six people per vehicle.
The boat parade starts offshore from Lessing’s restaurant, located where the Great South Bay meets the Connetquot. Watch the show from the waterfront patio.
Warm up with free hot chocolate and cookies. Santa will be on hand to visit with the tots.
Christmas Boat Parade and Grucci Fireworks on the Connetquot River
WHEN | WHERE 5:30 p.m. boat parade Saturday, Nov. 25, followed by fireworks at 7 along the Connetquot Riverfront, Oakdale
INFO 631-589-0248, connetquotboatparade.com
To register a boat in the parade, call 631-220-7035.
ANOTHER BOAT PARADE
WHEN | WHERE 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24, at the Huntington Harbor.
The North Shore gets into a holiday mood with the Huntington Harbor Parade of Lights, presented — after taking a year off — by the Huntington Lighthouse Preservation Society. The annual boat parade draws crowds to the shores of Huntington Harbor with vessels, homes and businesses decorated with holiday lights.
