Santa waggled a super-sized Best Buy card in front of Mayor Dixon as her parade car passed through Hampden. Photo by Sean Gallagher.

Just days after Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted on a misdemeanor embezzlement charge — for taking and using Best Buy and Target gift cards meant for the poor — Dixon had one of her more public duties to fulfill: riding through Hampden for the 38th Annual Mayor’s Christmas Parade.

Everyone wondered: would the crowd be naughty or nice?

The applause, what there was, was muted and there were some boos and jeers. At one place on Falls Road, about a half-dozen people on the sidewalk in front of rowhouses waved homemade Best Buy cards, as Dixon, in holiday-red pashmina, rode by in the back of a red convertible.

Hampdenites waving Best Buy signs at Mayor Sheila Dixon. Photo by Sean Gallgher.

Elsewhere, in Baltimore, the reaction to Dixon, post-conviction was even worse. According to the Sunday Baltimore Sun, which sent 25 reporters across the city to question 383 people — 56 percent — said Dixon should resign.

The paper’s unscientific-but-ambitious poll showed a significant racial divide (70 percent of whites thought Dixon should step down, compared to 48 percent of African-Americans.) There was also a small gender difference. (54 percent of males wanted her to leave, compared to 57 percent of women.)

Meanwhile, about 67 percent of those they spoke with said they either didn’t know City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake or didn’t think she is ready to be mayor.

Still, Rawlings-Blake, riding a few cars back from Dixon in SUnday’s parade, got significantly more applause.

Sheila Dixon in Hampden for the annual Mayor's Christmas Parade. Photo by Sean Gallagher.