Sunshine crowns fun at Christmas parade

It was a seasonal extravaganza for all who turned out to this year's Rotorua Christmas Parade.

The annual event, held in the CBD on Saturday, featured 30 colourful and creative floats, music and plenty of entertainment for the whole family.

Organiser Alexis LewGor said that, with the sun shining and a crowd of thousands turning out for the parade, it could not have gone better.

This year's Rotorua Christmas Parade on Saturday drew 'phenomenal' numbers of spectators. Photo / Ben Fraser

"I'm overjoyed with how it went. Firstly, the weather was much better than we expected, and secondly, the amount of people who came along was phenomenal," she said.

"There was great teamwork and amazing community spirit from everyone involved."

The parade began at Rangiuru St before winding through the downtown area and finishing at the Village Green for prizegiving.

Kidicorp's float was declared the supreme prize winner.

Ms LewGor said she was overwhelmed by the talent and creativity shown by the 30 floats involved.

"They were all so colourful and had fantastic themes. What was really great this year was that so many children were involved in decorating the floats. That was great to see."

She was thrilled by the number of people who got involved, including police and the Fire Service, dozens of businesses and organisations, schools and early childhood centres, and the Philippines and Cook Islands communities.

It was also great to see pupils, their parents and teachers from Lynmore Primary School get involved by decorating Santa's Grotto, she said.

Image 1 of 19: 071214bf1 Rotorua Christmas parade. Zoe Muggleton, 10, left, and Annalise Payne, 7, Photo/Ben Fraser

"When they [the children] realised they were going to be decorating Santa's grotto, their eyes just lit up and sparkled."

Ms LewGor said she urged people to start thinking about getting involved with next year's parade and encouraged them to come up with different ways to decorate their floats.

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