(AP) — The New Year marched in with Mummers parading as Martha Stewart and a shackled Saddam Hussein in Philadelphia and water-squirting elephants and a bubble-blowing octopus entertaining the hundreds of thousands of people who lined the route of the Rose Parade.

Others marched to their own drummers and took part in a different New Year’s Day tradition: jumping into bone-chillingly cold water for a quick “polar bear” swim.

But some people had to put their celebrations on hold as a snowstorm hit the West Coast, shutting down a 90-mile stretch of Interstate 5 in Northern California and knocking out power for thousands of people.

About 12,000 elaborately costumed men and women strutted through Philadelphia in the annual Mummers Parade, where many of the string bands strum “Oh Dem Golden Slippers.”

This year’s party along Broad Street featured people dressed like Philadelphia Flyers hockey players and a shackled Saddam.

Stewart, and the FBI bug found in Philadelphia Mayor John Street’s office during the last election campaign also came in for spoofs from the parasol-waving participants.