MONTVILLE — Despite the fog and mist, Montville was a winter wonderland on Sunday night as residents lined the streets for the annual Holiday Parade.

Starting at the Montville Funeral Home, the parade made its way up Route 32 to the Town Hall. Floats, marchers and fire trucks covered in Christmas lights all wowed the local residents who came out to witness the spectacle.

Many community organizations participated in the evening’s festivities including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts and the Montville, Oakdale and Mohegan Fire Departments.

Before the parade, attendees enjoyed Christmas carols sung by the Tyl Middle School Chorus. Once the parade was over, the Montville High School Chorus took over. This coincided with the lighting of a 16-foot Norway spruce in front of Town Hall.

Sunday was Boy Scout Matt Ruddock’s third time participating in the parade. One of his favorite things about taking part was throwing candy to attendees.

“All of the candy that I saved, I got to eat it all,” Matt said.

There were many highlights to the parade, including an antique fire truck, another fire truck that looked as though it was being pulled by a fireman like a sleigh, a Mohegan float throwing lots of T-shirts to the crowd, and of course, Santa Claus.

“I think it’s come off outstanding,” said Montville Mayor Ronald McDaniel during the event. “It’s a great job by everyone who organized the event. I’m very happy to see all of the townspeople who have come out to support the event tonight. I think this is a great kick-off to our holiday season.”

McDaniel himself rode on one of the floats during the parde and donned a Santa Claus cap during the entire event.

“Any time that the town has a chance to get together is an awesome thing,” McDaniel said. “Right now, it’s the season where everybody should be united, come together as one community, as a people, and just say thanks for what we have and be united in the spirit of the season.”

With all the festivities taking place, there did seem to be some uncertainty about exactly how many years the town has been putting on this event. The title of one form on the town website indicates that this was the seventh annual parade. The title of another form indicates that the seventh happened back in 2014. Other sources say that the 14th annual parade took place in 2015 while still others say the 15th happened in 2012.

“It’s been at least 20 years, I believe,” McDaniel said. “I’ve lived here 25 years. I think it’s been at least two decades.”

In any case, it didn’t seem to matter much to attendees how many years this event was happening for. All that mattered was coming together with their neighbors on a Sunday evening and having some good old-fashioned fun.

“I thought it was very colorful and I loved all of the lights on all of the firetrucks and ambulances,” said attendee Amber Carlson. “I think every year you get more lights and everything has a new or different flow. I liked it.”