Bigger Holiday Parade-Festival Set

Huntington is getting ready for its second annual holiday parade and street festival on Nov.26, adding new features and expanding the area for events.

New this year are float competitions, in two categories, fire department and commercial, with another award going to the best-decorated business.

The parade route has been extended along Main Street to West Neck Road. The holiday trees on the Village Green and at Town Hall will be lit simultaneously, as they were last year.

Fire departments, Scouts, and veterans and civic groups will join the parade, which will step off at 6:30 p.m. from the Big H Shopping Center and head north on New York Avenue to Main Street, then march past the reviewing stand.

The town will close Wall Street  to traffic from Main Street to Gerard Street until 9 p.m. for the festival, which will include performances from many local groups and promotions from local merchants. 

Santa and Mrs. Claus and others, including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Grinch, Sesame Street's Elmo and Toy Story's Woody will make appearances.

The will have Buddy the Elf on board the sled used in the movie "Elf."

The parade and festival are sponsored by the town, the Huntington Village and Huntington Station Business Improvement Districts, the Huntington Township Chamber of Commerce, the Huntington and Huntington Manor Fire Departments and the Huntington Chiefs' Council.

Paradegoers are asked to bring an unwrapped toy to donate to the Toys for Tots program.

The parade is one of several holiday events during the post-Thanksgiving weekend. The night before the downtown parade, the will go off at 6 p.m. The day after the parade, will host a holiday tree lighting in honor of The Clark Gillies Children's Emergency Care Center at . That event will include caroling, photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, hot chocolate and cookies, and the lighting of a 20-foot balsam fir tree.