Christmas in the Park

As you know, at this time of the year, there is no chance of escaping the season’s festivities; whether it is carols, tinsel, twinkling lights or the hordes of Santas roaming the land. As we have spent most Christmases in the northern hemisphere, it all seems quite normal to don a big red suit, strap on a long white beard and stomp around in heavy boots. However, it does not seem quite right to do so when the skies are blue, the sun’s rays are strengthening and the prospect of beach sunbathing is imminent. Nevertheless, some things just have to be done.

Last Saturday night was the first of many free summer events in North Hagley Park, the one near our house. This event was sponsored by Coca-Cola, hence the name ‘Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park’. Normally, we try not to support big multi-nationals. However, we made a special allowance for this free event, although gold coin donations were collected for ChildLine.

The plan was that the Pinner family would go down to the park early, to reserve a place amongst the 100 000 people, on the grass. Incidently, we thought the reported figure of 100 000 people seemed rather high but it was certainly busy. You know what it is like: an event starts at 7.45pm, but some people will start to arrive at 4pm, with just about everything, including the kitchen sink. Obviously, people like this block any view people behind could possibly have had. However, thanks to Mark and Lisa, and the fact that they were prepared to protest with people plonking chairs in front of them, a reasonable view of the stage and screens was secured.

Armed with picnic blanket and two coolbags, we arrived. Although the central city area is a ‘no-alcohol’ zone, this does not apply to events in the park, and people are encouraged to bring their picnic. So, a nice bottle of red, and a few bottles of Monteiths Summer Ale were consumed. It was good just munching away on the food (bread, cheese, pickles, strawberries), chatting with friends and enjoying a nice show. The first part of the show was mostly Christmas songs and carols, and the second part was songs, such as that well known Christmas song ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ which was followed by a particularly poor version of ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’!Of course, the evening was not complete without Santa arriving on an enormous sleigh! I have no idea why Mrs Claus looked like one of those ballerina/fairy toilet roll holders that old people have sitting on their cisterns, but she sure did. The evening ended with an impressive firework display, which got the crowd oohing and ahhing.

Next Sunday Santa is on parade; might have another chance to slip him my wish list.

By the way, we forgot to take our camera so had to make do with these shots taken with a cellphone camera. Hence the below average quality.