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MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2016
H
oliday boat parades are common
from Newport Beach, California, to
Palm Beach, Florida. In most cases
massive yachts are decorated by hired hands
and the vessels’nattily attired owners and their
friends watch the procession of boats float by
from the comfort of their waterfront homes
or a yacht club terrace. Usually, there is hefty
admission fee to have your boat included in a
spectacular parade that’s really just a cocktail
party with aquatic entertainment.
This year the 31st Annual Sarasota (Florida)
Holiday Boat Parade of Lights will offer
expandedVIP seating.Save for the occasional
sloppily decorated dinghy captained by
a teenager just for kicks, the affair is, once
again, expected to be a brilliantly hued
pageant of one-upmanship.
For the most part things are quite different
throughout Louisiana and along the
western Gulf Coast.
Founded over 20 years ago, the Ala Bayou
Terrebonne Christmas Boat Parade has
become a family tradition and everyone in
every clan pitches in to decorate and bedazzle
the shrimp trawlers and Carolina skiffs upon
which the families’ livelihoods depend.
Thus adorned the flotilla will make its way
down Bayou Terrebonne from the Bourg
Volunteer Fire Station to Dugas Cemetery in
Montegut to a blaring soundtrack of holiday
tunes. Along the waterline VIP seating goes
to those who show up first with their lawn
chairs and ice chests. Celebrants crack open
their beers lit by the glow of burning bonfires
on the shoreline meant to guide Santa’s boat
through the gloom.
When Santa makes his appearance he
will wave from the dock of the Genesis,
Kevin Belanger’s 60-foot boat, attired in
his customary plush red suit and ridiculous
pompom-adorned hat. He will also be
wearing crabbing gloves and white shrimp
boots — because that’s how Santa rolls
when he’s down in these parts.
“For the towns of Bourg and Montegut, the
water is a major part of our lives,” says Joey
Pierce, a spokesperson for the Houma Area
Convention and Visitors Bureau. “For many
of our families, these boats provide work and
a means of support. When we celebrate, the
Christmas
On The Water
by
Jyl Benson
the
Holiday
issue