Traditional Santa will return

A traditional Santa Claus will be back in next year’s Nelson’s Santa Parade, after organisers apologised for having a non-costumed Maori version this year.

Santa Parade Trust event director Mark Soper 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’’.

Soper said the trust had ‘‘learnt a lot’’ from the experience, and while it hoped to build on the parade’s multicultural elements, next year would see the return of a ‘‘traditional Santa Claus’’.

The traditional Santa was replaced in Sunday’s parade by a Ma¯ ori man wearing a red korowai but with no hat, beard or coat. A number of children were confused or upset, with some asking where Santa was.

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 on the day. ‘‘There were kids crying, kids pointing and talking to their parents.’’

Community Arts Works Trust designed the costumes and art for the parade, and secretary Soper said the idea behind the Ma¯ori Santa was ‘‘biculturalism leading multiculturalism’’.

Nelson Deputy Mayor Paul Matheson said the parade organisers ‘‘got it a little bit wrong’’ with their Santa decision.

‘‘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.’’

Diane Chandler, the 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.

‘‘I’m just gutted.’’ Chandler said her father, who had been a parade organiser for 30 years, died a week before this year’s parade, and the backlash had overshadowed an emotional time for the family.

However, Nelson social work student Nicola Moke said the the Hana Ko¯ ko¯ (Maori Santa Claus) interpretation was ‘‘a beautiful expression of the New Zealand culture’’.

‘‘The incorporation of the red Ma¯ ori traditional korowai has an uncanny resemblance to St Nicholas’s robe,’’ she said. ‘‘What wasn’t done well was the communication.’’

Nelson City Council spokesman Paul Shattock said the council provided funding to the Santa Parade Trust, but did not have any influence over the decisions or the organisation of the event.

He said the council was ‘‘working with our partners to bring Santa to the city centre very soon’’.

Shattock said councillors and council staff had been the target of significant abuse following the parade, which made national headlines and generated hundreds of social media comments.

‘‘This is not OK, regardless of people’s viewpoint . . . and not in the spirit of Christmas.’’

‘‘[We] are saddened to hear so many people were disappointed’’. Santa Parade Trust event director Mark Soper