Te Puke Christmas parade gives way to Christmas town

Te Puke won't echo to the calls of town crier Michael Jones leading the Christmas float parade this year, but there will still be a festive feel to the town during December.

Christmas is coming - but it won't be quite the same in Te Puke.

Instead of a Christmas float parade, Te Puke will become Christmas town.

A highlight of any year, the float parade is organised by EPIC Te Puke. But this year, due to the uncertainty around Covid-19 restrictions, the parade has been cancelled - to be replaced with something a little different.

EPIC Te Puke's marketing manager Rebecca Larsen says she is obviously disappointed the parade cannot go ahead this year, but says there seems to be very little possibility of restrictions easing before December 4, the scheduled date of the parade.

By making the call now, she says there is a good lead in time for the alternative plans.

''We want to make Te Puke a destination where people can come and see decorations,'' she says.

Businesses, clubs and households are being encouraged to be part of the Christmas town concept that will see the town decorated from December 4 until Christmas.

''We hope this will bring a whole lot of festive cheer for people and be a destination for people to drive to and around from the safety of their vehicles, at their own pace.

''Decorations will be put up by clubs, businesses and on individual houses and we will still run the judging like we would for the parade and the Te Puke Jewellers Supreme Award [for the overall winner] will still be won - so we will continue the spirit of the parade but in a different manner.''

Rather than being disheartened, Rebecca is excited by the new idea.

''The Christmas town concept is quite exciting and I like to think this gives us the opportunity to do different things and try different things.

"We've already got the Christmas Shop in town and it is a destination, so if we can celebrate that fact and build the town up to be a Christmas village then that could be an awesome thing this year that's unique and memorable for people.''

Rebecca says the postponement decision was taken more than a month before the parade date as it would be heartbreaking to continue with plans only to find that the parade still couldn't happen.

''All parades are in the same position so I just wanted to give people a heads up with this and where we are going to go with the celebrations for Christmas this year because at least with this concept we can control the outcome."

Registrations for the parade had started coming in.

''The traffic light announcement was quite a significant change of direction than what we were used to. Until then there was still a hope that we would go to level 1, hopefully before Christmas, but then the traffic light system came out and that was like, no things are not happening, so let's move on.''