BURRILLVILLE – By the Bridgeway in Pascoag this past Saturday evening, Christmas lights twinkled and the frosty air crackled with excitement as the annual Victorian Holiday street festival got under way.
Night was falling at around 4 p.m. as the parade made its way through the village, and a couple hundred people moved from vendor to vendor and taking in the sights and sounds. Cheers, applause and the happy squeals of youngsters could be heard, and crowds watched with wonder when brightly holiday-decorated Jeeps and firetrucks paraded on by.
The annual Victorian Holiday festival was organized by the team at DPNA – formerly known as Downtown Pascoag & Neighborhood Association. The mission of the organization “is to offer low cost, family-friendly activities [especially] kid-friendly, and to try to support local vendors, who are given priority,” explained Chris Schroeder, president of the organization. This year’s event featured some 40 vendors, food trucks, a gingerbread contest, horse and buggy rides and more.
A vintage firetruck carried Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus in the parade, who then joined the crowd, posing for photos with children and other happy festival-goers.
“It’s a wonderful, so much fun,” said Bryana Muller of Mapleville, while waiting for her children Halley, age nine, and Greyson, three, to have their photos snapped with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Muller’s daughter was in the chorus from Steere Farm Elementary at the Victorian Holiday that performed at the festival.
Other festival visitors posed with Mr. Grinch and Martha May. Local Robert Eddy brought his grandchildren Timmy, age four, and Hope, seven, to see the horses and check out the other features of the festival. The youngsters didn’t see to mind posing with the notorious Grinch.
“We’re making the rounds,” said Eddy of the youngsters. “It’s nice that they do this for the town, to get to do something local.”
Pascoag locals mother and daughter Kathy Borges and Tara Borges were Martha May and the Grinch.
Vendors included Four Sisters of nearby Chepachet. The women keep busy in the winter crocheting and making blankets, as well as getting ready purses, jewelry, and stocking stuffers for sale, said Robin Collins, who was working at the company’s table with Sadie Houle of Connecticut.
Another out-of-stater, Patricia Rogers of Rayhnam, Massachusetts, was set up at the festival. She was selling soaps and other feel-good personal products at her Scentsy company table.
“This is amazing, to see the town putting things like this on” she said of the bustling holiday street festival.
Kitchen Witches, LLC., of Burrillville, also set up shop outdoors.
“We’re here for the holiday spirit, and to sell a lot of products as gifts,” said Debra Jadach of Cumberland, who was accompanied by helpers Anne-Marie Cassidy of Chepachet, and local Kathy Keable and daughter Keable’s daughter Abigayle, age twelve. “They’re all handmade. Pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.”
Autumn and Eric Smith were busy selling their Not Your Average Popcorn at their business’s table.
“Heat, rain. Cold, snow, we’ve done it all,” said Autumn. “We’ve been here quite a few years. This year is a little different.”
The organization, for one, was different this year, and the weather was cold, but not as freezing as last year’s wind-chilly frigid evening.
“Alyssa [Iadarola] is great,” said volunteer team head Tabitha Hopkins, of one of DPNA’s leaders.
“She’s well-organized, kind and respectful to everyone, and makes the event seem effortless,” said Hopkins.
Apparently the “effortless” planning worked out because the Christmas spirit seemed to be crackling in the late November cold breeze on Saturday.
