Sleigh bells set to ring around Inverness as Santa tours city streets in new illuminated vehicle in run-up to Christmas thanks to rotary club members
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Preparations are under way for Santa to tour the streets of Inverness in a new illuminated sleigh in the run-up to Christmas.
It is being made possible thanks to the help of Inverness Culloden Rotary Club which brought festive cheer to youngsters last year during a series of socially-distanced Santa Sleigh runs in city neighbourhoods using a sleigh borrowed from Dingwall Rotary Club.
This year, Culloden club members decided to build him a new vehicle complete with lights and sound system.
To get them started, Lochcarron Garage supplied an old caravan chassis which was followed by numerous material donations from other local businesses plus a grant from the Inverness Common Good Fund.
The new sleigh was officially unveiled by STV reporter, Nicola McAlley, at a club partners’ evening meeting which also included the presentation of cheques for £250 each to four local childrens’ charities – Adopt A Child, Wee Wildhearts, Dream Believe Achieve Highland and CHAS (Children’s Hospices Across Scotland) Inverness.
Derek McRae, who helps to organise the Santa Sleigh, said the club will be taking Santa and his elves – with buckets to collect donations for good causes – to many parts of the city again during the first three weeks of December.
He will also put in appearances after pantomime shows at Eden Court Theatre and city supermarkets.
Mr McRae hopes this year youngsters will be able to get a closer glimpse of Santa.
"Last year, the elves had to have buckets at the end of two-metre-long poles because of social distancing," he said.
"Also, we were not allowed to stop the sleigh. It had to keep moving all the time in case crowds gathered."
But he said the appearance of the sleigh had made a big difference to families as many events had to be cancelled due to tight coronavirus restrictions.
He thanked everyone who had donated to enable a new sleigh to be built including Cairngorm Windows, Crown Paints, Dingbro, Goodtread Alness, S&D Harper, Highland Industrial Supplies, R Macdonald & Sons, McBrides, A McRaild, Moray Trusses, Speedprint and Woodstock.
Mr McRae said a Santa-tracking app, Sleigh Tracker, is available for those wanting to find out details of the visits by selecting Inverness Culloden Rotary Club from the list and following the instructions.
"All routes will be shown on the app," he said.
An outline programme has been published and, nearer the dates, detailed timings will be published on the club’s Facebook page, in the local media and also distributed to local primary schools.
All evening Santa runs will be from 5pm to 7pm and the supermarket visits will be from 10am to 4pm but all timings, where given, are approximate.
Any enforced changes due to reasons such as weather will be published on the club’s Facebook page.
* Outline programme:
Thursday, December 2 – Balloch; Friday, December 3 – Smithton; Saturday, December 4 – Tesco, Inverness Retail Park.
Sunday, December 5 – Culloden; Monday, December 6 – Woodside; Wednesday, December 8 – Milton of Leys; Thursday, December 9 – Drakies/Inshes; Friday, December 10 – Slackbuie; Saturday, December 11 – Morrisons supermarket.
Sunday, December 12 – Hilton/Raigmore; Monday, December 13 – South Kessock/Merkinch; Wednesday, December 15 – Wester Craigs/Kinmylies; Thursday, December 16 – Ness Castle/Holm Mains; Friday, December 17 – Holm Dell Rd/Culduthel Mains/Holm Farm; Saturday, December 18 – Asda supermarket.
Monday, December 20 to Friday December 24 – Eden Court panto performances.
Santa tours city neighbourhoods
