The sky was clear blue and perfectly formed waves crashed at Cane Bay Sunday, but when Santa Clause appeared and children and adults alike clustered around him and his helper, the flawless beach day was forgotten.
For around 10 years, Santa has appeared at Cane Bay – one of his first appearances of the season – thanks to Krewe de Croix, Eat at Cane Bay Absolute Car and others. The sponsors collected more than 100 gifts for the children in the neighborhood.
According to Val Stiles, in previous years the community organization handed out candy canes and books collected by Santa’s helper, Ellie Hirsh.
“But last year, after the hurricane, we saw they needed a lot more than books,” Stiles said and the tradition of buying and wrapping gifts was born.
In addition to gifts, each child chose a book from dozens of options donated to Hirsh and St. Croix over the last few years.
At the end of the line of a dozen children and parents were Xander Morales, 7, and his brother Jylin Velasquez, 10 with their parents David and Alanna Morales. Jylin was focused on the gift he wanted to talk to Santa about – an RC remote car, but it took Xander a few minutes to realize that he wants two puppies for Christmas. Not just one, because puppies need to play together.
The parents seemed happy with balloon puppies created by Clown Earl Childs.
David Morales quietly voiced his Christmas wish, “The end of climate change,” and Alanna, a registered nurse, said she hopes the Gov. Juan Luis Hospital will be renovated with state-of- the art equipment.
Others who donated goods and services to the event were Golden Child Smooth Sailin Productions who played Christmas music, the water aerobics class and Beeston Hill Gym who purchased gifts and Barry Anthony who filmed the little ones giddy at seeing Santa.
Babylon’s representative. He gets the children messed up from young.