Deepa Bharath “This is a disaster! It’s...

Deepa Bharath

“This is a disaster! It’s the worst opening night ever!”

You could tell

Karen Thibodeau was stressed out.

Her get-up for the 94th annual Newport Harbor Christmas Boat

Parade was complete, with a knee-length flared Santa jacket -- the

one with the fluffy, white collar and cuffs. She wore red stockings

and shoes to match and a black belt around her trim waist.

The fluffy, white band she wrapped around her ankles kept falling

off. She brushed aside long, brown hair that continually fell in her

face and paced up and down her boat holding a Santa hat in her hands.

It was almost time for take off and her people couldn’t get a sign

that said “Newport” on the lighted palm tree on the back of the boat.

That was supposed to go with the Statue of Liberty that stood in

the front of her boat, the Endless Honeymoon.

“The theme this year is Celebrating America,” Thibodeau explained.

“And I just wanted to show the idea of, you know, from Newport Beach

to New York.”

But the sign had to be removed because of the storm.

“Call me a nut,” the 53-year-old grandmother of two said,

clenching her teeth as she smiled. “We’re not leaving without that

sign.”

This is Thibodeau’s eighth parade. Each year, she has taken

friends, family and guests on a cruise every night of the parade.

It’s complete with dinner, dessert, hot chocolate, spicy apple cider

and breathtaking views of Newport Harbor.

But on Wednesday, Thibodeau had to leave the dock without the sign

on her palm tree.

“This is the worst year,” she ranted, checking the temperature of

the hot water pot.

“But we’re still going to have fun,” Thibodeau continued, as she

donned her Santa hat and flashed a radiant smile that appeared just

as soon the nervousness disappeared.

Music blared out of the speakers on the deck as she climbed up a

platform and gyrated her hips to “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus” and

danced the “Macarena.”

“Merry Christmas!” she yelled, waving out to scores of people

watching the parade along the bay shores.

Thibodeau has always been a “Christmas person.” Where she grew up

in Michigan, about a 100 people, including about 70 cousins, would

gather for the holiday.

“We’d then go to one aunt’s place and open gifts and each of us

would get like 30 or 40 gifts,” she reminisced. “And then we’d have

Santa Claus knock on the door and give out our presents. It was

phenomenal.”

That spirit lives on in Thibodeau, who survived cancer barely four

years ago. She was diagnosed with a cancerous growth in her thyroid

glands.

“It was a total shock,” she said. “But they found it pretty early

and I recovered.”

That episode, she said, taught her to “appreciate what I have.”

Thibodeau came to Newport with her son Reggie nine years ago to watch

the boat parade.

“That was when I told my friends ‘Some day I’m going to buy a boat

and participate in the parade,” she said. “And they were like ‘Yeah,

right.’ But the next year, I did it. I sent out invitations to my

friends and they just couldn’t believe it.”

After all, she had only dreamed about having a boat since she was

4.

“My uncle in Michigan had a boat,” she said. “Ever since I always

wondered how cool it would be to have a big boat, sleep over, invite

friends.”

She called it Endless Honeymoon because every time she got on it

she felt like she was on one.

“Even if I’m single,” she added with a laugh.

The atmosphere at the boat parade is something else, Thibodeau

said.

“It’s electric,” she said. “Sometimes, people come on my boat

who’ve either lost a loved one or [are] going through a rough time.

They don’t feel like Christmas. But when they go back, they’re full

of spirit. They want to go back and decorate their homes.

“To me, that’s what all this is about. It’s why I do it every

year.”

* DEEPA BHARATH writes about public safety. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226.