LEWISTON — At the corner of Ash and Bates streets stands a 5-year-old girl with wide eyes.

“What’s that?” she asks of nobody in particular.

It’s an acorn, her mother tells her, albeit a very large one.

“What’s that?” the girl demands a few seconds later, pointing at the street.

This time it’s a gigantic boot, of the L.L. Bean variety, with blinking lights.

A moment of awed silence, and then: “What’s that?”

Her mother has no answer. Rolling toward them is a monstrous city dump truck wrapped in thousands of multicolored lights front front to back.

Explain that one, Santa.

The annual Parade of Lights rolled through Lewiston and Auburn on Wednesday night and as always, its sights were varied. In addition to oversized acorns and high-rising boots, the thousands of spectators were treated to an abominable snowman on a Gritty’s float, a walking moose in a Hawaiian shirt, a pair of glowing palm trees and a miniature Zamboni, to mention just a few.

In Lewiston, crowds lined the sidewalks along Ash, Bates, Park and Pine streets, waiting for the arrival of the usual suspects. One by one, they came: the elves, the reindeer and, at last, the celebrated Claus family, Mr. and Mrs. sitting cozy atop a float.

For some, the Christmas season isn’t official until the night of the parade. For others, it’s the lighting of the Christmas tree in Kennedy Park, which happened just a few minutes after 6 p.m. when Mayor Robert Macdonald threw the switch to bring the proper Yuletide glow to the park.

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and it sounded that way, too. Drummers drummed, carolers caroled and the big trucks occasionally blasted their horns to announce their presence.

Standing on Pine Street, a 4-year-old girl named Jacinta looked on. At times she stomped her feet to the beat of the music. At others, she stood in dazed silence, trying to take in all of those sights and sounds at once.

“She loves it,” said her mother, Abby Daniels. “She especially loves the lights. She doesn’t like the horns very much, though.”

Daniels and her family came from Auburn. The Wednesday night parade was their very first, so all of the sights were new. Jacinta’s brother Jimmy, 7, was likewise agog, pointing out each new attraction as it came along.

“Hey!” he cried just before 6:30 p.m. “That’s Santa!”

Santa it was, and a few seconds later so many cameras were flashing, it looked like Hollywood on Oscars night.

The parade kept on rolling, making its way toward Auburn’s Festival Plaza where there was more to be done. There was a tree to be lighted there and a menorah, too. Santa was on hand for the tree-lighting countdown and Rabbi Hillel Katzir was on hand to explain the meaning of the menorah, a candelabra lighted over the eight days of Hanukkah.

The festivities included hot chocolate, doughnuts and eggnog, wagon rides, gifts and music. It was all things Christmas with a few extras thrown in for kicks. Among the characters working the crowds were Portland Pirates’ Salty Pete, Oakhurst Dairy’s Oakie the Acorn, Dunkin’ Donuts Cuppy, Community Credit Union’s Monty Moose, and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

“This is just awesome,” declared Niomi Larrivee, who caught the beginning of the parade in Lewiston. “The community needs this. It’s all about getting everybody together. It’s all about getting into the holiday cheer.”

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