NORRIDGEWOCK — Saturday afternoon was cold, brisk and gray. But if you were beneath the Lynch Landscaping tent with Dana Tessier and her daughter Michaela, you wouldn’t have noticed.
The duo was running the company’s booth for Norridgewock’s annual Holiday Stroll, offering passersby free cookies and hot chocolate. They were one of more than a dozen local businesses offering free goodies ranging from photos with Santa to face painting as part of the event, and their warm personalities were infections from behind their booth.
Michaela Tessier, 7, stamps a Norridgewock Holiday Stroll Passport. As the first stop in Saturday’s walk, Tessier greeted participants with cookies and hot cocoa, but also handed out passports that could be stamped at all the stops along the stroll in Norridgewock, including hers. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel
Michaela, who turns 8 in a week, excitedly greeted every customer who stopped under their tent. She poured each of them a cup of hot chocolate, politely offered them marshmallows, and passed the cup to her mom, who would put on the lid before Michaela handed the cup to the customer.
She had been preparing with her mom for weeks for the event, she said. While there weren’t many kids manning booths at the event, Michaela said she likes being able to help her community members.
“It’s just fun, and it’s nice to do,” she said, smiling.
The company was providing three tractors wrapped in Christmas lights, pine wreaths, and holiday decorations for the evening’s Lighted Tractor Parade. Friday was the last day before Lynch Landscaping shut down for the season, and Dana Tessier said the company spent all day preparing for the parade.
“Yesterday it was all hands on deck,” Tessier said. “Everyone decorated. We have side-by-sides and tractors and excavators that we put presents in, stick them in the buckets, put all the lights on, and bring cookies.”
There were about a dozen tractors that could be seen lining Main Street, each of them sporting similar seasonal decor. One driver, who gave his name only as Jacob, had a long trailer covered with hay bales attached to the back of his tractor. He said this year’s parade is the third he’s participated in, and that each year he’s offered free rides in his tractor bed.
One of Lynch Landscaping’s tractors that will take part in the Lighted Tractor Parade in Norridgewock. Lynch Landscaping spent the entire day before preparing for Saturday’s event. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel
“I just like helping out in town,” he said. “It’s just nice being part of the community … We’re expecting to give probably one or two hundred tractor rides here today.”
The Holiday Stroll, Lighted Tractor Parade and Tree Lighting at Alice E. Emery Town Square have been put on for the last three years by the town. Town Manager Richard Labelle said that the event “has grown each year,” and that he expects next year’s to be even better.
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