|
Christmas time in the city
Santa parades, snowball throwing, lighted boat processions - all over the Tampa Bay area this weekend, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
By Times staff
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 5, 2002
With all the holiday merriment going on around the Tampa Bay area this weekend, even Santa's eight tiny reindeer might have trouble getting to them all. So work out your game plan and enjoy the season.
PARADES ON LAND:
[Times photo (1998)]
|
|
As an intrepid tuba player in the Northeast High School band marched in the 1998 St. Petersburg Santa Claus Parade, his horn reflected its take on the merriment around him.
|
[Times file photo]
|
The best kind of snow, the kind you don’t have to shovel, will delight children at the Tampa Recreation Department’s Snow Fest from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in Ybor City.
|
For the 75th year, St. Petersburg's Santa Claus Parade heralds the season with bands, floats and celebrities, including Tampa Bay Devil Rays catcher Toby Hall, the event's grand marshall. The fun starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, at First Avenue S and Bayshore Drive, then follows Bayshore north to the Renaissance Vinoy Resort area. The parade lasts about two hours; get to the route early to stake out a good spot.
While you're there, take the kids (especially those who think snow is fun and not something nasty to be shoveled off the driveway) to the St. Petersburg Snowfest in North Straub Park downtown; the event, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., includes ice skating, snowball throwing and even a toboggan slide.
If you've not seen the sparkly lights of Ybor at twilight, here's a good opportunity: The Krewe of Venus sponsors the Tampa Holiday Parade, which kicks off at 4 p.m. Saturday at Nick Nuccio Parkway and Sixth Avenue, travels up Nuccio, along Seventh, north on 19th to Ninth, west to 15th Street and ends at Palm Avenue.
Before the parade, the Tampa Recreation Department offers Santa Fest, with "snow," visits with the jolly elf, ice skating and five stages of entertainment at Centro Ybor and Centennial Park in Ybor City from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m..
PARADES AT SEA:
There's nothing like a lighted boat parade to hush the whining of even the most homesick Northerner. Where else but in Florida can you hang out along the water's edge and admire lighted boats from the serenely elegant to the delightfully tacky, and never fear frostbite?
Coastal communities host boat parades all month. This weekend's include the St. Petersburg Lighted Boat Parade, which starts at 6:45 p.m. Saturday at the Harborage Marina at Bayboro Harbor and heads north around the Pier and into the Vinoy Yacht Basin, then returns to Harborage. If you've not seen the fun holiday light displays in St. Petersburg's Straub Park, make an evening of it.
New Port Richey offers its third annual Riverlights Boat Parade on the scenic Pithlachascotee River at 7 p.m. Saturday starting at the Cotee River Bridge at U.S. 19 in Port Richey. The parade route takes the boats south to the Main Street Bridge, and you can watch the action all along the way, but a good place to congregate is Sims Park downtown. You should be in the park anyway. Arts and crafts, as well as seasonal music, are featured 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and the Expressions dance company previews its Nutcracker at 5 p.m. Saturday in the park's amphitheater.
MORE HOLIDAY FUN
Largo's Pinewood Cultural Park will be a veritable mall of activities Saturday, with something that should appeal to just about everyone. The historic buildings at Heritage Village are decorated for the holidays with special trees, storytelling and crafts. The Florida Botanical Gardens will give you ideas for your holiday garden, as well as offer train displays and a 6 p.m. holiday lighting. The Gulfcoast Museum of Art offers a low-stress haven for holiday shoppers with the "Gift of Art": holiday desserts, live music and shopping in the museum store.
Need more garden ideas? Check out Sunken Gardens' Victorian Holiday Garden Stroll, 6 to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday (also Dec. 13-15). The historic tropical gardens, which have enjoyed a major facelift since residents voted to have the city buy the property, will be aglow with 40,000 lights, as well as live music, children's activities and a visit by Santa.
Back to Weekend
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111
|
