GILROY
– Hundreds of men, women and children came downtown Saturday
evening to see Santa Claus make his
”
Jolly Walk
”
up Monterey Street, an annual event for the past decade.
GILROY – Hundreds of men, women and children came downtown Saturday evening to see Santa Claus make his “Jolly Walk” up Monterey Street, an annual event for the past decade.
As in the past two years, a parade of Gilroyans accompanied Santa on his two-block stroll from Sixth Street to Lewis Street. The parade’s 10 entries included walkers, dancers, an antique quarry truck, a school bus, a motorcycle and a recreational vehicle. The length of the parade and the length of the parade route were roughly the same.
Last of all was a sleigh drawn by five “reindeer” who double as City Council members: Mayor Al Pinheiro and councilmen Paul Correa, Craig Gartman, Russ Valiquette and Roland Velasco, all wearing antlers on their heads.
Correa, presumably playing Rudolph, donned a flashing red nose.
“A friend of mine gave me the nose … kind of put me up to it,” Correa said afterward, in line at Garlic City Coffee and Tea. “Someone’s got to lead the way, you know.”
To conclude the parade, Santa oversaw the lighting of the city’s Christmas tree at Monterey and Fifth streets as has been done for more than 20 years.
County Supervisor Don Gage was the announcer for the parade and tree-lighting.
Afterward, Santa made his way over to the Chamber of Commerce, where an estimated 100 or more kids lined up to sit on his lap to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. The Chamber took a Polaroid photo for each child to keep.
Walter Alvarez walked downtown with his family from their home at Forest and Sixth streets. Although he and his wife often make the walk to eat at downtown restaurants or have a drink with friends at the lounges, he’d never been to the parade before in his two years in Gilroy.
“They have a lot of street fairs and stuff here; I just forget about them,” Alvarez said as he watched the Jolly Walk with his wife and five children: one their own, four belonging to friends, all visibly excited.
“Everybody likes to come out downtown,” said Sheryl Young, who has lived in Gilroy for 10 years. “It’s funny, ’cause the rest of the year they complain about it.”
It’s true that downtown’s aesthetic and economic health are frequent targets of critique among Gilroyans. Revitalization of the area was a hot topic in the latest City Council election and already has begun with sidewalk construction on Monterey Street between Seventh and Sixth streets and refurbishing of Old City Hall.
Seeing Saturday evening’s crowds downtown is a rare sight. Correa said he hopes it happens more often in the future.
“We need to have as many of these kinds of events as we can, to pull people together,” he said.
Some downtown businesses stayed open late, and a few served free snacks and drinks. Most onlookers weren’t there to shop, however, and only a few stores were able to draw customers.
“I haven’t done any business since 3 o’clock this afternoon, when they closed the street,” said Joyce Duarte, a Monterey Street Antiques owner who’s served tree-lighting refreshments for 12 of her 14 years in business. This year it was hot apple cider and popcorn.
Despite Duarte’s free hot beverages, business was booming next door at Garlic City Coffee and Tea. Customers were lined up out the door at around 5 p.m. as elementary-school children sang carols across the street.
A couple of brand-new downtown shops got to showcase themselves Saturday evening, with mixed results.
Scrapbook supply store Got Memories? opened Monday on the southwest corner of the Monterey and Fifth intersection, in the storefront occupied until recently by Coachman Antiques.
“We’ve had quite a bit of business here from the parade,” clerk Christine Ochoa said.
“It’s cute,” Ochoa added of the parade. “It’s really nice that they do something like this. And so many people came.”
On Monterey Street at Lewis, Celeste’s Place children’s clothing and toy store has been open for two weeks. Joanna Dominguez kept it open an extra hour Saturday but got few customers as a result, probably because it is on the outer fringe of the parade route.
Judging by the crowds and happy looks on faces, many people were full of Christmas spirit Saturday, but there were a few who were weary of holiday activities.
“Ask me how many times a day I hear this song,” Sheryl Young said as the caroling elementary-schoolers led the audience in “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Young’s sentiments were not shared by her first-grade daughter Lane, however. When asked if she was sick of “Rudolph,” Lane shook her head shyly.
