Ocean City, MD—I love Ocean City, Maryland.  My family has been going on vacation there since the 80s.  And for the past 7 years (minus pandemic years), my work besties and I have gone on a girls’ weekend there every March, August, and December.  We dubbed ourselves Surf Sisters and have developed some fun weekend traditions.

One of those traditions is attending the Ocean City Christmas Parade.  This year was the parade’s 40th anniversary and the weather was ideal at 60 degrees (I know some would disagree), but it was the perfect mixture of summer-winter and a fun kickoff to this holiday season.  

Summer teased us the whole way through the parade with the Ocean City Beach Patrol, the Chincoteague Pony Drill team, and paraders dressed up like Old Bay, flamingos, crabs and sea turtles.   Other highlights included a fireman on roller skates, the Chincoteague Pony Poop Control, Hogs and Heroes, the Bearded Men’s Society of Ocean City, and festive 4-legged (one 3-legged) parade goers.  Santa brought up the rear on a US Coast Guard boat.  

We stood at the beginning of the route and watched two red-faced parade organizers yelling at the police when they got out of line, running after Buddy the Elf while shaking their fist and shouting, “Go! Go!”  Poor Buddy.  He was just hopping along for a laughing crowd allowing them to get pictures.  We were laughing so hard.

I’m looking forward to our next girls’ weekend in March, although I’m tempted to come back down next weekend for the 13th annual SantaCon.