Santa's Jingle Tour rolls into Cranberry
CRANBERRY TWP — Low temperatures and even a brief snow shower — Santa Claus must have felt right at home Saturday afternoon.
Escorted by Cranberry police, EMS and fire vehicles, he greeted residents throughout the township while riding atop an antique fire truck.
Santa's Jingle Tour, as it was billed, began at noon and lasted for two hours.
The tour began at the Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company and made its way through the adjoining Cranberry Community Park before heading north on Route 19 to North Boundary Park, south to Graham Park and finished where it started.
“I just found out about it yesterday on Facebook. I usually miss things like this,” said Jamie Deer, who along with her husband, Ryan, brought their two children, Addilyn, 4, and Everly, 4 months, to catch a glimpse of St. Nick at Cranberry Community Park. “It's nice that they're doing stuff for the kids,” she said.Saturday's event was planned after one Cranberry tradition was drastically modified because of the coronavirus pandemic while two others were canceled.Santa's First Stop, an annual event to kick off the holiday season, usually is staged in and around the Cranberry Township Municipal Center the Friday before Thanksgiving. It has included miniature train displays, ice sculptures, an ice slide and of course, an appearance by Santa.
“That usually attracts between two and three thousand people,” said Pete Geis, director of the township's Parks and Recreation Department. “Because of COVID, we did it virtually this year with a video on Facebook.”The 12½-minute video included Mrs. Claus reading a children's book, holiday music courtesy of the Dutilh Choir and footage of decorated trees and of Santa Claus riding atop a fire truck.“Addilyn liked storytime with Mrs. Claus,” said Jamie Deer. “She's talked about it a few times since she watched it.”“People were pretty pleased with the video, but we wanted to do something more than virtual,” said Geis. “(Santa's Tour) was a collaborative effort. We received a lot of help from the fire department, EMS and police here in the township.“Originally, we thought about taking the tour through the neighborhoods of Cranberry,” said Geis, “but we have a lot of neighborhoods and knew we couldn't get to all of them. We didn't want to shortchange any of them because they're all important to us.”The township's three parks provided the next best thing with wide-open areas for social distancing and plenty of parking spots available.Mitch Lenhard arrived with his twin 6-year-old daughters, Chelsea and Brooke.Chelsea held up a sheet of paper that included her Christmas wish list. Not surprisingly, it was filled from top to bottom and side to side.
Shortly before Santa's arrival, snow began to fall. Lenhard exclaimed to his girls, “Here comes the snow! Santa must be getting close!”He added: “This is a great way to get the spirit of the season out to people.”Milk and Cookies with Santa and Brunch with Santa, when children can sit on his lap and get their picture taken, both normally take place in early December in Cranberry Township. They will not be held this year.Geis was pleased the township found a safe way to acknowledge a Christmas tradition and let children know that, even in a year with so much uncertainty, Santa still is keeping track of who is naughty and nice.“With everything we've been dealing with, this breaks up the monotony,” he said. “There's a lot of places Santa just can't be right now, but this gives the kids a chance to see him in person.”Katie Barbera brought her three children — Ryan, 7; Avery, 5; and Elias, 2. The family recently moved to Cranberry Township from Kentucky.“I was excited,” Ryan said. “I didn't know there was going to be sirens.”
