Thousands gather for spectacular Christmas parade

Marching bands, multicultural street performers, dozens of colourful floats and Santa Claus himself victoriously traversed an explosion of road cones in Invercargill’s CBD to present another successful Christmas parade on Saturday.

Thousands lined the shortened parade route to watch the spectacular and colourful annual event.

Glowing blue skies, brilliant sunshine and no wind made the last day of spring a glorious one to be outdoors with the family to watch the joyful event.

But Santa Claus admitted to the Otago Daily Times his winter-warmth red suit forced him to seek cool shade under some trees after the parade as the sunny day had made his visit a bit more challenging than he was used to.

Seven little elves joined him on his sleigh ride around the CBD and he even took an extra circuit around the Troopers Memorial roundabout to ensure he was able to do an extremely good check of who was being naughty or nice.

There was no hint from him that said he spotted any naughty children and he expected to make plenty of deliveries to the city on Christmas Eve.

Santa was looking forward to being able to put his feet up with a cuppa on Saturday night after an exceptionally busy Saturday.

He had spent all Saturday morning working hard at the Invercargill Christian Centre to help volunteers pack 750 Christmas gift boxes to be distributed around the wider Southland region to people who were struggling with the extra demands of the coming holiday period.

By Toni McDonald