Mike and Stacey Varallo, who have a summer home in Sea Isle, enjoyed their first Holiday Extravaganza with their sons, Maverick, 6, and Sebastian, 9.
By Donald Wittkowski
For anyone who may think that Santa Claus works only on Christmas Eve, you are sadly mistaken.
Taking some time away from the North Pole, he showed up in Sea Isle City on Friday night – wearing his trademark plush red suit and fluffy snow-white beard – amid the cries of “Santa” from hundreds of adoring children.
But he wasn’t in Sea Isle for a leisurely vacation at the beach. Among his duties, he rode on a fire truck in the annual holiday parade, waited patiently while the kids plopped on his lap to tell him the presents they want on Christmas morning and took part in a sing-along of Christmas carols.
Before the night was over, he topped it all off by helping to light the city’s towering holiday tree in Excursion Park.
Whew! We hope he got some holiday pay for so much work.
But there were no complaints from Santa.
“Ho-ho-ho. Merry Christmas,” he shouted to the crowd.
A Christmas tree, a wreath and gifts adorn the brightly decorated stage at Excursion Park.
This is the fifth year that the Sea Isle City Chamber of Commerce and Revitalization has sponsored the holiday celebration. Christopher Glancey, the chamber’s president, said the festivities are a big draw for families.
“This is Sea Isle at its finest,” he said.
Glancey noted that the holiday celebration also helps to boost local businesses by attracting more visitors to town.
“This has been a great success for restaurants and shopping. It is a big event that allows everyone to come together.”
Throughout the night, children and their parents enjoyed an array of family-friendly attractions, including an ice-skating rink that featured some snowflakes blowing in the light breeze off the ocean.
The surface of the skating rink was fake ice, but it was cold and slippery like the real stuff. Although temperatures hovered in the 40s Friday evening, the ice skaters also reveled in fake snow that was created by a special machine.
Megan Heere, of Elkins Park, Pa., broke into laughter while watching her sons, Benjamin, 4, and Jeff, 2, dart under the snow-making machine, getting their faces covered by the wet, fake flakes.
“The big Christmas tree excites the 2-year-old and the fake ice excites the 4-year-old,” she said of Benjamin and Jeff.
Mike and Stacey Varallo, who have a summer home in Sea Isle, enjoyed their first Holiday Extravaganza with their sons, Maverick, 6, and Sebastian, 9.
Skaters Sebastian Varallo, 9, and his 6-year-old brother, Maverick, were trying their best to stay on their feet on the artificial ice.
“It’s hard,” Maverick exclaimed.
Sebastian agreed with his little brother that it was somewhat challenging, but he seemed to be getting the hang of things while gliding along.
Stacey and Mike Varallo, Sebastian and Maverick’s parents, were celebrating the family’s first Holiday Extravaganza in Sea Isle. Full-time residents of Swedesboro, Gloucester County, they bought a vacation home in Sea Isle last year.
They said the holiday festivities were the type of family-oriented entertainment that attracted them to Sea Isle.
“A lot of things here are geared toward both the kids and the parents. This is a lot of family fun,” Stacey Varallo said.
