SAXONBURG — People lined the streets four or five deep Friday as a kaleidoscope of holiday cheer streamed past — red-hatted dancers, Clydesdale horses, festive floats — a 20-year tradition for many of the families attending.

Fans found their favorite spots along Main Street for the annual holiday parade as their children, sitting on the curb, filled grocery bags with candy tossed from passing floats.

Katie Johnson and Nella Eisman, both of whom are sisters and live in Butler, attended the parade with their other siblings and their children.

“This year this is really huge,” Johnson said. “It's a nice feel to bring our kids to some small-town Christmas festivities”

Eisman said she and her sister were in the band when they attended Knoch High School.

“They started these (holiday parades) when we were adults,” Eisman said. “We didn't have this.”

Johnson said her favorite float was a thank you to the crews of West Penn Power and Central Electric. She said it was nice to see the community support for the work after they spent a lot of last week restoring power to much of the county.

“We both lost power, so we were very appreciative of that,” Johnson said.

Eisman's daughter, Lucy, said she liked the light-lined train driven by the Grinch that weaved from one side of Main Street to the other. Lucy said she was surprised to see so many people watch the parade.

Eisman said she liked seeing people she hadn't seen in years. She said the community has change in some ways, and it hasn't in others.

“We were always involved in the community as kids,” she said. “It's nice to see that again.”

Nicholas Pawlowski, a senior at Knoch, performed with the school's band in the parade. He played the quad, which is a four-drum set. He said the parade contradicts people's expectations.

“It's fantastic,” Nicholas said. “Saxonburg sounds like a small town, you expect it.”

Nicholas said he has performed in the parade every year of his high school career.

“People love it,” he said. “It's one of the biggest events of the year for Saxonburg residents.”

He said the crowd for Friday's parade was the biggest he'd seen in four years.

“It was exhilarating,” Nicholas said. “I would say it's probably the biggest, but I don't know if there's any bias behind that statement.”

Nicholas said there was something special about performing in the Saxonburg Holiday Parade as opposed to the Pittsburgh parade that the band will march in on Saturday. He said both were exciting, but the band members only call one of those two places home.

“This is different because we're surrounded by people we know,” Nicholas said. “We're performing for them in our town under the stars, a performance just for them.”

After the parade came to a close, some raced to their cars to avoid the biting cold while others viewed the live Nativity at the corner of Main and Rebecca streets performed by members of Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church or had cookies with Santa at the South Butler Community Library.

Others warmed themselves at the Main Street shops where Al Carr and his wife, Bernie, of Saxonburg stopped.

“We love to go into the little shops and see everything,” Bernie Carr said.

Al Carr said the businesses along Main Street are what make events like the parade possible and give life to their community. He said he was glad to see so many people coming from all sorts of places.

“We think it's great,” Al Carr said. “Not all these people here live in Saxonburg. It draws people's interest.”

The parade was sponsored by the Saxonburg Business Association.

“As a resident, I know we get excited for it, whenever there's an event like this in town,” Josh Novotny, a board member for the association, said. “You see people change gears, and for the most part, you see more aspiring faces.”