After parading past Herald Square this past Thanksgiving, Santa Claus hung a left, traded in his sleigh for a red fire truck, and visited one of his favorite neighborhoods — Gerritsen Beach, where he was a guest of honor at the annual Ragamuffin Parade.
More than 150 residents joined in this year’s fun-filled parade, where marchers dressed in costumes as they made their way through Gerritsen Beach’s Court streets.
The parade began at Plumb Second Street and Celeste Court and made its way through the neighborhood until it reached the Gerritsen Beach Volunteer Fire Department’s station on Noel (get it — Noel) and Seba avenues, where Santa took time to greet the little kiddies and, of course, took Christmas orders.
George Broadhead, president of the Gerritsen Beach Property Owners Association, says that residents have been holding the yearly Thanksgiving Ragamuffin Parade in Gerritsen Beach for decades.
“When we were children in the 1930s, on Thanksgiving our mothers would dress us up like beggars and send us door to door so we could get an orange or an apple or whatever,” he remembered. “It was like a second Halloween and the vollies [Volunteer Fire Department] have maintained the tradition all this time.”
Reach reporter Thomas Tracy at ttracy@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2525.
