New Boston residents are starting to hear sleigh bells ringing, as village employees fill the streets and parks to hang lights and install displays that will welcome Santa and the annual festivities this weekend.
The New Boston 28th Annual Breakfast with Santa will be held December 3, with pancakes, sausage, milk, juice and coffee. This is a village classic, having been a part of tradition for decades, outside of Covid years.
“We’re back, after a two-year break from Covid. We’ve done this for 28 years and we’ve estimated we have served over 12,000 meals and have distributed nearly 8,000 toys,” Mayor Junior Williams said. “It was started by Mayor Jim Warren back in 1994. We missed two years during Covid, but we’re back and we are anxious to see the community come out and celebrate the day through breakfast and now an evening ceremony.”
The village has decided to shake things up a little with festivities this year, doing away with the parade in exchange for a Christmas in the Park event. The event will take place in Millbrook the same day and will feature a tree lighting ceremony, Christmas choir music, free hot chocolate and cookies, and a visit with Santa.
“We’ve chosen, rather than do a parade, that we’d host a Christmas in the Park and tree lighting ceremony,” Mayor Williams said. “We feel it would be a good time for everyone in a safer environment. There wasn’t as much interest with participants in the parade, but we wanted to do something. We are trying this event and we will see what happens.”
Millbrook Park has always been a source of pride for the New Boston community and they’ve increasingly grown in a direction of using it more frequently. This event is no different from other events, where the village plans to go all out for their residents.
“We’re going to have Santa there on our stage, where kids will visit with him and receive a treat,” Mayor Williams said. “We will also have several local church choirs that will be on stage singing carols all evening long. We will have the tree lighting at approximately 6 p.m. and, of course, hot chocolate and cookies, which will be free to everyone.”
Mayor Williams is optimistic about the potential of Christmas in the Park.
“We think it is going to go really well. People seem to like the Christmas lights we continue to put up and the continuation of that program. I think we will have a nice turnout,” Mayor Williams said, commenting on the village’s recent expansion of Christmas lights that dress major parts of the village and roadways. “This is a time to celebrate the holiday season and for everybody to have a joyous occasion, just as we’ve done with Breakfast with Santa for 28 years.”
Breakfast with Santa will be held between 9 and 11 a.m. in the New Boston Community Center. Children should be accompanied by an adult. The event is free to residents.
Christmas in the Park will be held in Millbrook Park between 4 and 7 p.m.
Reach Joseph Pratt at (740) 353-3101, by email at [email protected], © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved
