Mark your calendars for Saturday, Dec. 6. That’s the date for the “Riverhead Holiday Extravaganza”: the Santa parade, tree lighting and holiday bonfire, all held downtown.
This year there are changes to the route of the holiday parade and the venue for the Christmas tree lighting, holiday bonfire and Santa’s gingerbread house. The changes were made necessary due to construction activities downtown, Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard said today. He announced the event at the start of today’s Town Board meeting
The parade will come down Main Street, continue to Second Street and end at Town Hall, Hubbard said.
The tree lighting ceremony will take place in front of Town Hall on Second Street, “where there are two nice size Christmas trees out there,” Hubbard said.
The bonfire will be in the parking lot behind Town Hall, off Railroad Avenue. The town showmobile will be set up there, as well as Santa’s gingerbread house, where children can share their Christmas wishes and take photos with Santa Claus.
“There’s a whole bunch of good things that are going on that day,” the supervisor said. “So with the construction going to be starting downtown, we didn’t want to chance that not being available,” Hubbard said, and the town decided to change the venue of festivities to Town Hall.
The parade starts at 4:30 and the tree lighting will take place at 5:30, he said.
“It’s really shaping up to be a great event,” Council Member Joann Waski said. “The community has really pitched in.” The BID, Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club and Riverhead Free Library are all involved, she said.
“So it’s kind of an expansion of what we’ve already had with our previous parades downtown,” she said.
There will also be music and live entertainment and free hot chocolate, too, Waski said.
This year marks the town’s 73rd Santa parade and 25th holiday bonfire.
The Lions Club traditionally held the Santa parade on a Sunday afternoon — typically the first Sunday in December. The town’s holiday bonfire has always been on a Saturday evening.
In 2017, organizers of the two events decided to hold the two events on the same day, to create a large, family-friendly holiday festival downtown. The combination of the two events was an immediate success and they have been held on the same day in December ever since.
The area on the riverfront where the bonfire has been located is now mostly fenced off as a construction staging area for downtown redevelopment projects, and about half of the grassy area that is slated to become “upper town square” is also fenced off for demolition and construction activities in connection with the town square hotel project.
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