Parading around with pets

Siobhan and Lisa love a parade

You can imagine how much work it is to decorate a golf cart right around xmas– which is what a flockette of GFairies did last year for the Tarpon Springs xmas pararde. This year we thought let’s decorate dogs. Surely, this would be a simpler project. So… we all agreed, let’s add dogs dressed as fairies.

Simple ehh! Haaaa– maybe the making the doggy costume part. But the parading around with keyed up dogs- yikes. They sit when you want to go and you can fill in the rest. It was worse than trying to take a child on a walk, when all they want to do is sit around and cram all the candy canes on the tree in their mouth.

We were a sight to be seen and probably the most popular parade entry in this old-fashioned holiday event in one of West Florida’s quaint towns, Tarpon Springs. While being pulled along the parade route by the dogs, it was heartening to see how people’s face’s lit up seeing a flock of Fairies and their adorable dressed up dogs.

Through the years we have made many hats and have crates of costumes to mix and match, depending on the occasion. The silver xmas tree dress seen on Siobhan, is one of three that Ruth, Barbara and Siobhan made for GFairy Kiaralinda and Todd’s Millennium Party. Multi-tiered silver lame, pre-lit. Just add a Garden Fairy hat and accessories. This year it was quite nippy for the parade so we wore lots of layers. Nothing has to match as you can see.

The dog’s didn’t seem to mind that nothing in their ensembles matched. We tried wings on both of Lisa’s dogs, Tinker and Jazz, but were successful only with Tinker. Jazz had a jealous fit while Tinker got her costume on– so she ended up being a wingless fairy and had to be happy wearing a xmas tree skirt (used to hide tree stands). Tinker broke her leash, twice– before we even got to the parading part.

Lisa’s dogs get the most energetic award. Adrienne’s old Jack Russell and Mary’s lab both tie for the most well behaved award. Adrienne’s dog Max didn’t pee or drink the entire time. Adrienne’s husband blamed it on the doggie’s outfit blocking his peeing part. Ooops.

The flock of Fairy paraders

Post parade break

Well, at the end of the parade the dogs and Fairies were done–parading around is a lot of work. A couple of minutes after the last pic was taken (shown here), Lisa was launched by both of her dogs. When Lisa got over the shock of being dragged off her seat, pulled on her stomach by her dogs in mad pursuit of a squirrel – we laughed and said WOW that is something you only see in cartoons. A squirrelly surreal moment. Next year, we just might consider decorating a golf cart again!

See more pics at

Tarpon Springs Xmas Parade 2009

Tarpon Springs Parade 2008