BEVERLY — It hardly felt like the winter holiday season yesterday as the sun shone brightly and temperatures hovered in the 50s, but holiday cheer abounded at the 62nd annual Beverly Holiday Parade.

Marching bands, floats, politicans and local officials, antique cars, fire engines — and of course Santa Claus — were among the many parade participants.

Onlookers lined the streets as the parade rolled out from the Cummings Center parking lot yesterday afternoon at 1:30 and made its way onto Elliott Street, to Cabot Street, Broadway, Rantoul Street and back down Elliott Street to the Cummings Center.

"I'm excited!" said Seamus Dunn, 7, who was walking in the parade with his brother Gavin, 9, and their dog, Koko, with the Friends of Beverly Animals float. It was his first time walking in the parade.

Sisters Annie and Meghan Curtin, ages 6 and 8, wore ribbons in their hair as they rode atop a float made by the St. Mary Star of the Sea School decorated in a "How the Grinch stole Christmas and Made it Green" theme.

"I painted some trees and houses," Meghan said of her contribution to the float. "I've never been on a float before," Annie added with a grin.

This year's parade theme was "School's Out for the Holidays," for which float entries reflected a variety of ideas.

The Pack 2 Cub Scouts built an elaborate "Staycation" float that featured the many things a kid can do in Beverly while school's out for the holidays. The float included a replica of the Lynch Park hill with sleds anchored to it, and many of the boys dressed like rockers and built instruments from cardboard and mimed playing music.

"This is the most fun," said Amy Lackie, a Pack 2 Webelos 1 den leader and parade committee co-chairwoman, whose son Nathan, 9, was on the float. "They'll remember, 'When I was a Cub Scout, I was in the parade and we were rocking.'"

Beverly schools Superintendent James Hayes, who was the parade grand marshal, wore a baseball cap and rode on the back of a red Mustang convertible, waving and tossing Tootsie Rolls to the throngs of families and onlookers. Volunteers in red sweatshirts carried red buckets to collect donations at the parade to benefit the Beverly Parent-Teacher-Student Organization.

Annual parade favorites included Beverly Boostraps' trademark float with a giant macaroni-and-cheese-box, the Beverly and Salem high school marching bands, and the Kora Shriners Log Rollers of Lewiston, Maine, who drove miniature trucks and zipped around each other in a dizzying formation as the crowd whooped and cheered them on.

New faces in the parade included the Friends of Beverly Animals organization, whose float featured a cozy living room with a fireplace flanked by portraits of dogs. Beverly resident Janet Nee dressed a grandmother while her daughter Michelle, 10, and Haley Morong, 12, of Wenham, sat on the floor with two huge dogs: Kass, a Bernese mountain dog, and Tinkerbell, a Saint Bernard.

"We wanted to spread the awareness of a need for an animal shelter in Beverly," said volunteer Ann Innocenti, whose husband, Andy, wore a Great Dane costume. The organization fosters homeless animals and is working to secure an animal shelter in Beverly, according to president Heidi Roberts, who wore an elf hat.

Music emanated from the float, including "Who Let the Dogs Out?" and a rendition of "Jingle Bells" with barking in place of the lyrics.

"I've been to the parade many times," said Ann Innocenti, "but I've never been in one."

As they have done in the past, the First Baptist Church Middle School Fellowship pushed shopping carts to collect food donations for Beverly Bootstraps.

An Open Road Theatre float featured a stage and children in elaborate costumes dressed as characters from "Peter Pan" and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," among other productions.

As is tradition, Santa Claus brought up the rear of the parade, but this year he rode atop a stagecoach — a replica of the famous Wells Fargo Wagon — which was a red wagon with bright yellow wheels drawn by four draft horses.

"Merry Christmas, everybody," he bellowed as the wagon pulled onto Elliot Street.

Staff writer Amanda McGregor can be reached at 978-338-2665 or at amcgregor@salemnews.com.