Like Santa’s elves working feverishly to assemble Christmas toys at the North Pole, employees of a Central Coast bank have been putting together a holiday-themed float over the past few weeks for tonight’s Santa Maria Christmas Parade of Lights.

Rabobank’s entry, a gingerbread house and family-inspired motif, is one of more than 100 entries in the “The Joy of Giving”-themed parade organized by the four Rotary Clubs of Santa Maria and Nipomo. The Santa Maria Times and KCOY/KKFX are primary sponsors.

Participants and spectators are encouraged to bring canned or other nonperishable food items that will be donated to the Salvation Army.

The parade will start at 5:20 p.m. today at Stowell Road, heading north on Broadway and ending at the Santa Maria Town Center. Broadway between Enos Drive and Main Street will be closed from 4 p.m. until the parade is over.

Up to 30 Rabobank employees and their families have worked on the float since Nov. 15, said Pam Santana, vice president of client services and regional manager. The gingerbread house and family theme was agreed on during a September parade committee meeting, she said.

In the past, Rabobank floats have featured themes such as Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” a pirate ship and a celebration of California.

For the past four years, Rabobank has partnered with Santa Maria’s Rancho Harvest, which has provided a flatbed trailer and a truck for the float.

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The annual Parade of Lights entry is put together by employees — mostly on their own time — with the help of family and others, said Janice Cofield, Rabobank assistant vice president of client services, while working on the float Thursday inside a barn at the Santa Maria Fair Park.

“It’s such a big endeavor because you have a new theme every year,” she said.

After the theme was decided on in September, the duties of making costumes and decorations were assigned. Between 85 to 100 walkers, employees and their families are expected to march the parade route in festive attire. The entry also will include an armored truck and Rabobank Regional President Steve Harding.

Most importantly, the float will be covered with thousands of bright lights.

“We have come to know it’s all about the lights,” Cofield said.

This year’s float adorned with 8-foot-tall candy canes, colorful lollipops and decorated Christmas trees on a 70-foot-long trailer is centered on a large brown gingerbread house made of wood, not gingerbread, and a costumed gingerbread family — employee Gricelda Preciado, a customer care specialist, and her three children, Francisco, 2, Hope, 4, and Destiny, 9.

Preciado, who was working on painting decorations Thursday, said creativity and the feeling of giving back to the community is why she was working on the float for a second year.

“Making kids happy,” she said is her inspiration.

For Righetti High School’s band director, the parade can be a “logistical challenge.”

Cindy Dirlam, head of the band for the past three years, said the school’s 20-member “Thunder” drumline and dancers march separately early in the parade and have to rush back to the parade’s starting point to join up with the 54-member Warrior marching band toward the end of the parade lineup.

“We should have enough time to get back together,” she said.

However, last year drumline members needed a ride on parade chairman Mike Gibson’s golf cart to rush back to the parade start. By the time they got there though the last entry had left and the band was gone but they eventually caught up to join the band.

Dirlam said she begged Gibson to put at least 75 entries between the drumline and band this year. According to the parade lineup, they are 84 entries apart.

Despite last year’s incident, Dirlam said students are eager to put on Santa hats, decorate themselves and their instruments in lights and perform medleys of Christmas tunes.

“We’re glad to be a part of it.”

December 6, 2008