X-Mass cheer on holiday sleigh
Published on December 31st, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - You weren't imagining things if you saw a flatbed sleigh full of revelers parading through the streets of Stoneham, escorted by a Stoneham fire engine, police cruiser and a great helping of holiday cheer. You also weren't hearing things if you imagined lung-busting voice of Mariah Carey singing "All I Want for Christmas" between 7 and 10 p.m. on December 24.
It was actually lifelong Stoneham resident Chris Ponzo -- along with his brother Stoneham Police officer Joe Ponzo -- and a group of twenty or so hearty souls, including Santa Claus. The sleigh is a modified flat-bed truck bottom that is hooked by trailer-hitch to a Jeep Wrangler pulling the sleigh through the streets of Stoneham.
"It's like Stoneham's own Macy's Day Parade," said Ponzo.
The sleigh is adorned with streams of colorful Christmas lights and also boasts a generator-powered sound system usually utilized by Ponzo's Deejay company.
According to Ponzo, the idea first started when he and a group of his friends used to walk around singing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve. First he took the hard top off the job, and drove through town playing Christmas-themed music.
From there it has evolved into a 15-person sleigh, and then a 30-person sleigh, which now gets visit requests called in to the Stoneham Police and Fire Stations.
"We used to go around caroling as little kids and it's just grown from there," said Ponzo, who said it took him about two months to draw up the design and to build the sleigh by himself. "I built a little sleigh and then everybody really liked it and wanted to get on it, so I built a bigger one...funny, huh?"
Ponzo said the work of carving out the walls and decorating the sleigh with garland and the ubiquitous green and red Christmas-time colors, was all a labor of holiday love.
"I really think it's one of those special-occasion things that you do on Christmas," said Ponzo.
Ponzo gets the most enjoyment watching the children of Stoneham, who wait patiently for the sleigh to pass by their house. Many adults and children alike stand in their doorways of their homes and wave happily to the Yule-tide sleigh, hearing it or spying the lights well before it ambles by their door.
"We get a lot of calls beforehand and call us and make sure we're coming out," said Ponzo. "We got our own Santa every year and takes pictures with Santa. I can't believe how big it's gotten...we see hundreds of people every Christmas Eve."
"It's a good time," added Ponzo. "It's nice to spread the cheer. It's what I'm all about."
The sleigh then makes designated stops through the town, and allows kids to greet and take pictures with Santa during the festive scene.
Ponzo, a 1992 graduate of Northeastern Metropolitan Vocational School in Wakefield, plans on continuing the sleigh tradition for a couple more years and, as always will have a new wrinkle ready for next year.
"Only god knows," said a chuckling Ponzo. "Every year, we keep people guessing what we're going to do."
As always, there are houses that the Ponzo Christmas sleigh didn't make it to this year, but Ponzo purposefully changes the route up a bit every year.
"We're only out there for four hours and we can only go so fast in the sleigh," said Ponzo. "We try to get to as many places as we can."
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