This is how I made the last three shots, of course this photo is not
taken by Prakticar 500/5.6 (an exception here). The lens is supported
by the Manfrotto #055 tripod and the camera is on the SLIK monopod.
The tripod head is HANZA/Kenko FP 100 ZS-N, pretty rigid good one.

All the Santa parade shots were done with two tripod method, which was
very hard to move around and also no room for standing by and peeking.
This tripod and monopod method is a good solution to this problem.
Btw, I always press the shutter button not using MLU nor self-timer
while holding the monopod tightly toward the floor.