Christmas in the Park returns Saturday

HAMMONDSPORT--After being severely limited last year due to the COVID pandemic, Christmas in the Park is returning to Hammondsport Saturday, Dec. 11. While last year only had a Christmas parade with Santa, officials from the Hammondsport Chamber of Commerce said this year the event will have many memorable features for guests and families.
"This year is going to be a return to the original Christmas in the Park, and it's nice to get back to normalcy a bit," said Christine Harr, office manager for the Hammondsport Chamber of Commerce and organizer of this year's event. "We are thrilled to bring it back to the traditional form, we are one of the originals, and we have a lot of vendors this year."
While Harr said the chamber was proud of the events they could put on last winter, they have also been anxious to get things back to the way they were.
"This year is going to be done the traditional way that we have always done it, last year we couldn't do it so we had Santa go by on the firetruck and then allowed kids to go by him so they could drop off their letters and wave," Harr said. "It was nice we could do that, but we want to get back to the way it was before."
Along with vendors, there will also be church choirs, bell ringers, horse-drawn wagon rides and even an appearance by some reindeer.
Kicking off at 8 a.m. with Breakfast with Santa at the Hammondsport Fire Department, the downtown events will begin at 4 p.m. In the meantime, the Keuka Lake Players will host a production at the First Presbyterian Church at 3:30 p.m.
From 4:15 p.m. until 8 p.m. there will be free musical performances and from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. attendees can either go for a horse-drawn carriage ride or check out some of the reindeer in attendance. Santa arrives by firetruck at 6 p.m.
"I think people look forward to this every year, it's a gathering time for family, you see people you haven't seen in a while," added Harr. "My kids are grown and they remember Christmas in the Park, and now we are taking my grandchild (to create even more memories)."