Santa Claus is coming to town
Palmerston North’s Christmas parade is coming to town this weekend and it will be a redneck and blackface-free affair.
Christmas parade organiser Carol Kelly, from the Kairanga Lions Club, says about 60 floats from businesses, kindergartens, schools and community groups will feature in this year’s parade.
As always, Santa will make an appearance in his own float, accompanied by his reindeer.
Recently, Christmas parades around the country have attracted controversy, notably the Hawera and Richmond events.
Kelly is confident the Palmerston North parade will be ‘‘strictly family friendly’’ and float owners are well aware of the expectations about what is acceptable. ‘‘There will be no rednecks or blackfaces in our parade.’’
Although Kelly did not know how all of the floats will be
decorated, she said organisers had ‘‘strict criteria’’ about the theme of the floats. The organisers reserve the right to stop floats from joining the parade on the day if they are inappropriate.
The parade starts at the railway land, then heads down Church St to the Square. From there, it will go along Main St back towards the railway land.
A new addition for this year’s festivities is the free temporary playground that will be running from 12pm to 4pm in the Square. The parade starts at 2pm.
A giant Christmas tree was erected in the Square on Tuesday to signal the start of the city’s Christmas festivities.