NORWAY – Although it’s a bit hard to imagine during these balmy days of late, Christmas is just around the corner. And the Chamber of Commerce and businesses here and in neighboring Paris are ready to help launch the holiday and shopping spirit.

The annual Christmas parade for the Oxford Hills – dubbed grandly “The Biggest Christmas Parade in Maine” – will step off the day after Thanksgiving at 11 a.m.

“It’s huge,” said Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce President Rich Livingston. “When the first units enter Advertiser Square, the last units have not yet left Market Square. The parade stretches over two miles. It’s the biggest one in Maine, as far as we know.”

Nearby Bethel will host its Country Christmas from Nov. 24 to Dec. 24, with a variety of events from a restaurant taster event to wagon rides and Christmas tree lighting. Those happenings are listed on the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce’s Web site.

Livingston said he believes the 30-year-old Paris parade is so large because it’s a longstanding community tradition that attracts throngs of spectators.

Last year, 85 floats, bands, singers, marching units, performers, carriages and the like participated in the parade. Livingston said he wasn’t sure how many would parade next week because there are always last-minute entrants.

One of the new units this year will be the cargo trailer that is designed to haul the equipment of local ham radio operators in emergencies. Oxford County’s Emergency Management Agency recently bought the trailer with a $20,000 homeland security grant. And the local radio hobbyists, officially called ARES, will also provide volunteer communication for the parade, a service they’ve offered for the last eight years.

“We’re the eyes and ears of entire parade,” said Brad Saunders, the emergency coordinator for the local ARES group. “Someone comes in looking for someone, we look them up.”

ARES stands for “amateur radio emergency service.” The 15 or so in the local group volunteer their communication skills at community events to test their equipment and training, Saunders said. In case of a disaster, the radio operators are trained to step in and boost official lines of communication.

The volunteers will likely have their Community Emergency Response Team vests and will be monitoring the length of the parade.

“We have a dozen to 15 people spread out along where the parade is lining up,” Saunders explained. “Certain people cover certain areas. We become familiar with who’s in that area, and if someone comes up and asks, “Have you seen troop number 1056?,” someone says, “They’re back here next to Santa Claus.”