As the clock approached 6:30 p.m., a crowd joined together, huddled in the cold, at the Maritime Center where a tree of decorated buoys stood tall. Under the string lights, they sang in unison to holiday songs with Santa and Mrs. Claus after an evening of strolling through the village.

The Annual Holiday Stroll, run by the Padanaram Village Association, was held Friday, Dec. 6 and included the fourth annual lighting of the buoy tree. The buoy tree will be up until early January, at which time 50 buoys will be chosen to be auctioned off. Each year, all of the proceeds from the auction go to a local organization.

This year’s recipient is Sharing the Harvest Community Farm, which is a non-profit hunger-relief farm that has donated more than 450,000 pounds of produce to the community since 2006.

In addition, the tree was lit this year by Tom Quann, founder and president of Stonegate Mortgage.

David Russell, chair of the business association, highlighted Quann’s role in originally getting the village lit with its now iconic string lights during the holiday season.

“We can’t thank you enough, Tom,” Russel said. “You’ve made this village so special.”

Stonegate Mortgage shared a video earlier this season, showing all of their elves working together to light up the village.

For some, the lights are the best part of the stroll, including for Jeff DuBois.

“Every night when you come through the village, they’re on — I love it,” he said. 

His wife, Amy DuBois said, “It’s amazing when you feel like you’re in a Hallmark movie in our town.”

Joined by their daughters and some family friends, Addy DuBois, 8, Elly DuBois, 8, and Liv Stefanik, 8, said they were big fans of the Holiday Stroll and shared they were most excited to see the juggler who was riding around the village on a unicycle.

Jenn Stefanik said, “I just love that it’s a family thing that we do together every year and we see friends and it’s so much fun.”

Along with the juggler, the village was filled with entertainment, including ice sculptures, blow-ups of holiday characters, Victorian carolers, performances by the Toe Jam Puppets and visits with Santa, Mrs. Claus, the Grinch and Elsa.

Outside on the street, Stacey Giebel, of Taunton, stopped to grab a selfie with Erin McHugh, who was dressed in a costume with light-up wings. 

Visiting for the first time, Giebel said, “This is awesome,” adding she thought it was “very quaint.”

She said she was most looking forward to the buoy tree lighting, adding, “I was actually looking forward to getting a picture with the Grinch believe it or not.”

As a crowd joined around Mr. Vinny the Bubble Guy, Lucas Santos, 10, said he liked the stroll because of all the entertainment, highlighting the cookie decorating and juggler on a unicycle.

Inside Gibson Sotheby’s and Karyne & Company, kids decorated sugar cookies with bright-colored frosting and sprinkles.

Nicole Anderson said she was excited for the cookies because the kids loved it. Growing up in Dartmouth her whole life, this was the first year she was able to bring them.

“I love that they do this,” she said. Though added, “I wish it was a little warmer.”