Where Santa surprise went wrong
Children were left confused and upset by Nelson’s multicultural Santa, Hana Ko¯ko¯, parade attendees said.
Mitre 10 Mega marketing coordinator Murray Leaning, who was the parade MC, said he had no idea about the Santa switch until he saw the float himself on Sunday. ‘‘The kids were just confused, their little faces were just crumpling, there were kids crying, kids pointing and talking to their parents.’’
Leaning said he got ‘‘lots of pretty raw emotion’’ from parents on the day, and said he was disappointed at being ‘‘blindsided’’ by the change.
‘‘People are commenting on social media that ‘the announcer should have been preparing us, should have told us this was happening, rather than saying that Santa was coming on his sleigh’ but actually I didn’t know anything about it.’’
Leaning said Mitre 10 Mega, one of the major sponsors of the parade, was communicating with the Santa Parade Trust Directors.
‘‘We’re a little disappointed that we weren’t told that this was going to happen.’’
Santa Parade Trust event director Mark Soper yesterday said the trust was ‘‘truly sorry that the parade did not live up to expectations, and are saddened to hear so many people were disappointed’’. He said the trust had ‘‘learnt a lot’’ from the experience, and while they hoped to build on the parade’s multicultural elements, next year would see the return of a ‘‘traditional Santa Claus’’.
Nelson’s Deputy Mayor Paul Matheson said the parade ‘‘got it a little bit wrong’’.
‘‘I see what they were trying to do, trying to add more of a multicultural aspect. The feature, and always the feature, is that big fat fellow that sits in the float and goes ‘ho ho ho’, and that was missing.’’ It was great to be multicultural but Santa was ‘‘the pinnacle’’ of any Santa Parade. Matheson said the city council was coming under fire for the parade but beyond funding it with $15,000 each year, the council had no creative sway over it.
Diane Chandler, daughter of long-time parade organiser Graham Shirley, said Santa simply wasn’t Santa without the suit.
‘‘Santa can be Indian, Pakistani, Irish, Tongan, Samoan, any person; but they need to wear the Santa suit.
‘‘Kids identify with the Santa suit,’’ she said.
‘‘Superman is a fantasy but it’s the suit that makes him superman. Batman is a fantasy but it’s the costume that makes Batman.
‘‘I don’t care who puts on the suit but Santa is the suit.’’
Chandler said her father, who had been an organiser of the parade for 30 years, died a week ago and the backlash overshadowed an emotional time for the family.
The Santa switch didn’t fall flat for everyone, however.
Nelson local and social work student Nicola Moke said the Hana Ko¯ko¯ interpretation was ‘‘a beautiful expression of the New Zealand culture’’.
‘‘They positively intertwined a Western view with our Ma¯ ori culture. Santa is traditionally based from St Nicholas and the main outfit he wore was a red robe.
‘‘The incorporation of the red Ma¯ ori traditional korowai has an uncanny resemblance to St Nicholas’ robe,’’ she said.
‘‘What wasn’t done well was the communication.’’
She said if there had been forewarning that Hana Ko¯ko¯ would be stepping in for Santa Claus, there might have been more positivity.
She said Hana Ko¯ko¯ and Father Christmas sharing a float would probably work better for future parades.