The 58-year-old tradition has outgrown its simple neighborhood flavor to become a major city event, and the city says it’s time to legitimize with permits and insurance.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
The celebrated Point Dume Christmas Parade, a Malibu tradition since 1958, is no more … maybe. Depending on whom you speak to, either the parade has been cancelled, a victim of tired overworked organizers and the modern realities of permitting and insurance requirements, or it has been simply postponed until some fresh blood is willing to take up the mantle.
Dick Corman, a resident of Point Dume since childhood, has suggested that it is time for Santa-or it least his Santa-to hang up his jingle bells. Corman has played St. Nick in the Christmas parade since 1995. The 78-year-old Corman had until this year relished his image as the spirit of Christmas-even though he didn’t exactly fit the physical profile. Far from having a generous girth that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly Corman is a champion tennis player who was ranked 52nd nationally in his age group’s singles’ event last year.
“But I had a nasty bout with shingles this past year and it has laid me up,” Corman said. “It’s time someone else took on the job.”
The sentiment was echoed by another Point Dume resident, Tim Biglow, who has chaired the organizing committee for the parade since 1994.
“I took on the organization of the parade back then when Gary Troy was ready to pack it up,” Biglow said. “And he had taken it over from the Malibu lifeguards, who started the parade back in ’58. After 12 years, I need a vacation.”
The parade was started by lifeguards Bob Burnside as Santa and Jack Campbell as his elf. Gary Troy had offered to run the Christmas parade in the mid ’70s because, as proprietor of a residential home for troubled teens in Point Dume at the time, he had plenty of volunteers on hand to assist in the organization.
Troy expanded the muscle behind the parade and, over the years, it grew to encompass two fire trucks from Fire Station No. 71, a couple of Sheriff’s patrol cars and an enormous decorated float perched on a trailer bed and followed by crowds of children.
“I would sit on the float, surrounded by elves,” Corman reminisced, “and what started out as a one-hour neighborhood parade became a five-hour extravaganza.”
Corman recounted how the parade would wind its way around the neighborhood, stopping at likely watering holes along the way.
“Well, as the evening passed, people began to celebrate more and it got harder and harder to move the parade on,” he said. “People would come out and want to sit all their kids on Santa’s lap to take pictures. Then they would want to sit on Santa’s lap to take pictures. I worked hard, let me tell you.”
Biglow acknowledged that the Point Dume Christmas parade had outgrown its simple neighborhood flavor to become a major city event.
“We knew that, eventually, we would need to apply for permits and get insurance,” he said. “We had always sort of flown under the radar on that. But the city has told us that it is time to legitimize.”
Biglow said with a sigh: “I remember watching the Point Dume Christmas parade when I was a kid, and then my kids watched it for years. It’s something that just had to keep going.”
“Last year’s Christmas parade float featured a huge surfboard and an enormous blow-up Santa,” Corman said. “It looked like a huge sleigh and we had an on-board generator to run the lights. There were 10 kids who would jump off and hand out candy canes.”
But candy canes and generators, and Polaroid film for the photos with Santa don’t come cheaply and Biglow admitted that the continuing expense of the Christmas parade is not one he can continue to maintain, especially with the specter of permitting and insurance costs looming.
“It was never about the money,” Biglow said. “We usually would get some donations to help cover costs. But this year, most of my crew is going on vacation for the holiday and I’ve lost my Santa.”
But Biglow suggested that the pulse might not be completely gone for the parade.
“I have a few volunteers ready to take up the mantle,” he said. “But it’s going to take some sponsorship and organizers.”
Corman speculated that perhaps one of the local service clubs like the Kiwanis or the Lions’ Club might be interested.
“There’s 50 years of Point Dume holiday history there,” he said. “I hate to see it go.”