By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

The atmosphere couldn't have been any better had they ordered it that way.

The 2009 FrostFest parade, postponed a week because of icy weather, got off without a hitch Sunday evening in downtown Hays.

With a thermometer on a local downtown business reading just above the freezing mark and snow piled up along both sides of the street, people lined businesses on both sides to watch about 40 lighted floats parade down Main Street.

Some people, of course, showed up only to see if they had won anything in the Downtown Dollars giveaway.

But others braved the foggy, cold night for about a half hour longer to stick around for the FrostFest parade, in its ninth year.

And they weren't disappointed.

Drivers of vehicles pulling the float entries waved and smiled and threw out candy to children waiting with their bags.

Parade-watchers were treated to a dino-Santa, accompanied by his reindeer, dressed as pteranodons from the Cretacious period.

There was a snow globe and several sleigh scenes.

The dinosaur float, an entry by Fort Hays State University's Sternberg Museum of Natural History, won first place in the business division.

FHSU's Chinese Student Association was voted No. 1 in the school float division for an entry that featured lights the students had shipped to Hays from China.

Voted the top overall float was "Jingle Bell Bottom," built by the teen advisory board of the Hays Public Library.

That entry, with teenagers dressed in bell-bottom jeans dancing on the trailer as it wheeled by, especially got the attention of youngsters.

Two-year-old Lane Wittman left his 11-month-old sister, Jersie, on the sidewalk in the family's two-child stroller to get a closer look.

As Lane glanced up the street and awaited the next float with big eyes, Jersie was content to sip hot chocolate and stay all bundled up in blankets.

The children's mom, Jenny Wittman, had to do some maneuvering over the snow to get her daughter into the street and closer to the action.

But it didn't seem to bother her.

"The snow makes it more festive," Jenny said as Lane climbed up into the arms of his dad, James Wittman. "Seems more like Christmas."

Christmas came early for several people who won prizes in the Downtown Dollars drawing that featured a variety of gifts from the 17 participating businesses.

Hays resident Janet Frank won the round-trip airplane ticket for two to Denver, and Amy Terry was the winner of the top cash prize for $1,000.

"I'd been buying some things at White Chocolate and got some tickets, so I thought I'd go this year," said Terry, a freshman at Fort Hays State University who never had attended FrostFest before.

"This will really come in handy," added Terry, a double major in pre-med and English, "especially this close to Christmas."

Two other cash prizes, of $500 and $200, also were given away, compliments of businesses participating in the Downtown Dollars program.

And the parks department for the city of Hays donated a new large lighted star for the top of the Austrian pine tree that Hays resident Hazel Dick donated to be planted in Union Pacific Park years ago.

There is debate whether the tree was planted in 1988 or '89, but it doesn't matter.

It's become known as Dick's tree through the years, and each year city workers have had to reach just a little higher to string lights at Christmastime.

At the time, Dick, who had moved to Hays from Lyons not long before then, asked how big the 8-foot tree would be in 10 years.

Probably about 20 feet, someone told her.

"I hope I'm here at least 10 years and can really watch it grow," she said back then.

Well, that was 20 years ago, or 21 depending on who you ask, and Dick has indeed enjoyed watching it grow.

Dick was recognized just before the start of Sunday's parade for her contribution, which now stands 22 feet tall, and she was glad to be on hand to celebrate the tree's anniversary.

Dick admired the new star atop the tree and said she hopes she's around three more years to see what the tree looks like then.

Three years -- why not five or 10, someone asked?

Because in three years, Dick said with a smile, she will be turning 100. And that's definitely reason to celebrate.