NANTICOKE — Residents lined the streets and watched from their homes as the Nanticoke Fire Department ushered Santa Claus to town Sunday.
The second annual “Christmas in the Park” began with a parade which included Greater Nanticoke Area cheerleaders and football players, various Nanticoke-based Girl and Boy Scout troops, Nanticoke Crime Watch and a float by Nanticoke Community Garden. Parade participants left Greater Nanticoke Area High School on Kosciuszko Street and traveled three blocks to Patriot Square Park.
Santa Claus watched the parade from atop a Nanticoke fire truck and, when he reached his destination, he was greeted in the middle of Patriot Square by young and old, waiting to see him and give him their Christmas list.
Wearing matching Santa-faced red and white striped dresses, sisters Gulia and Ava Knutzon, of Nanticoke, along with their mother, Allison, were just three of the hundreds of individuals in attendance to meet the man in the big red suit.
Ava, 3, was excited to see Santa and enjoy a horse-drawn carriage ride around the square.
Gulia, 5, couldn’t wait to tell Santa she wanted a smart board for Christmas.
Nanticoke Mayor Richard Wiaterowski attributed the amount of people to the extremely pleasurable weather.
“We (City of Nanticoke Events Committee) are excited for the amount of people,” Wiaterowski said. “The weather obviously helped.”
“It’s nice to see people out,” Wiaterowski said because he “remembers doing this as a kid.”
Committee member Lindsey Temarantz said the committee planned for 300 children based on the response from last year’s event.
She also said it takes about three months to plan so that “everybody is on the same page.”
“Once we’re done with Trunk or Treat, we start with this,” Temarantz said, referencing a Halloween event in the city.
A horse and carriage ride around the park, hot chocolate sponsored by the firemen of Nanticoke and cookies donated by the Luzerne County Community College culinary students were also available.
Wiaterowski
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Wiaterowski
Nanticoke firefighter Bill Tomolaitis escorts Santa Claus while he greets people during Christmas in the Park in Nanticoke’s Patriot Square Park Sunday.
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Nanticoke firefighter Bill Tomolaitis escorts Santa Claus while he greets people during Christmas in the Park in Nanticoke’s Patriot Square Park Sunday.
Sean McKeag | Times Leader
Stepbrothers Blaze Boyd, 2, left, of Hunlock Creek, and Ryan Shemanski, 4, of Nanticoke, play the toy trumpet while they wait for the parade to pass them during Christmas in the Park in Nanticoke Sunday.
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Stepbrothers Blaze Boyd, 2, left, of Hunlock Creek, and Ryan Shemanski, 4, of Nanticoke, play the toy trumpet while they wait for the parade to pass them during Christmas in the Park in Nanticoke Sunday.
Sean McKeag | Times Leader
By Melanie Mizenko
mmizenko@timesleader.com
Reach Melanie Mizenko at 570-991-6116 or on Twitter @TL_MMizenko