Thousands come out for Napier Santa Parade

A decision to extend Napier's annual Christmas Parade has been lauded, after thousands of people turned out for Sunday's parade.

Led by the New Zealand Fire Brigade, the parade thrilled the throngs of watchers along the route, with crowds packed five and six deep the length of Emerson St, which reverberated to the sounds of bagpipes provided by the Napier Pipe Band and Lindisfarne College.

Taking part in the parade, alongside a host of belly-dancers and cheerleaders were Mickey and Minnie Mouse who drew cheers from watching children, who reserved the biggest cheer of the day for the star attraction - Santa.

Santa makes a thrilling entrance at the Napier Christmas Parade. Photo / Warren Buckland

Parade director Jonathan Smith said 38 floats took part in this year's parade, which took in a new route.

"We had a few pull out over the last 48 hours because they couldn't get the numbers together or they couldn't get their floats ready in time but we still had a good number, about the same as last year."

This year the route had been extended to travel from Emerson St to Herschell St and back down Emerson St.

"We were asked last year if we could actually make it longer for two reasons - number one, to spread the crowd out, and second, those people who were participating just wanted to make it last a little bit longer for all the work they had just done."

The parade lasted about 40 minutes.

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said the new route had proven to be incredibly popular.
"The route was increased so people didn't have to be so deep and they could spread out more, so it all went really well.

"It was fantastic, there were amazing crowds, it was lovely to see."

Napier MP Stuart Nash said the day had been a "fantastic" success.

"This is what Napier's about, beautiful fine weather, a whole lot of people enjoying themselves, cafes making a whole lot of money, and people celebrating the festive season."

Both the crowds and participant numbers were also boosted by the lack of a Christmas Parade in Havelock North this year.

Havelock North Business Association executive committee member Dale Cooley said she had come from Havelock North with other members to take part in the parade for the first time in the association's new "Love the Village"-branded car.

"We just got the car to promote Havelock, so we have just started campaigning and getting it out and about as much as we possibly can so that we can get people coming to Havelock.

"We haven't got a parade in Havelock this year because we've just had the Village Street Carnival a couple of weeks ago and that took so much effort that we were too exhausted."

Alexander Construction was awarded the best float award for their full replica of Santa's workshop, while the Art Deco Trust was runner-up and the Drama Workshop third.