Motueka’s Father Christmas, Peter Canton, has bought cheer and decided who’s naughty and nice for the past five or six years, but has hinted this silly season could be his final sleigh ride.
The 64-year-old says he plans to retire next year from his cobbler work, and he has a travel list he’s checking twice, “the North Pole possibly being one of [the destinations].”
He says, he’s loved the opportunity to bring season’s greetings to hundreds of youths at the Motueka parade and at preschool visits, and says 2023 is set to be just as merry.
“It’s like going to one of those fancy-dress parties and you’ve got to come as something starting with the letter ‘B’,” he says.
“It automatically puts you in that mood that this is going to be a lot of fun, and I have a lot of fun with the kids, share their joy, and getting them to ask questions.
“As soon as I walk in the door they run over and they’ve got their arms around my legs and, as I’m trying to walk across the room, they’re not letting my leg go… I just thought that was wonderful.”
Peter says some questions from kids were curly like an elf shoe.
“I get a lot of, ‘what will you bring me for Christmas’, and you’ve got to be careful on all of those questions because you don’t know the financial situation of where they’re living,” he says.
“Some will want a push bike and you don’t want to say ‘yes, I’ll bring you a push bike’, so you just say ‘there’s lots of people that want push bikes around and you’ll just have to see what the little elves are doing’ and you make up a big long story to deflect it away.”
Peter says, his preschool visits also unwrapped some important life skills for the kids prior to his Christmas Eve stop.
“One of my favourite things I like doing at the preschools is say ‘I’m going to be watching you’ ... I want to make sure there’s going to be no arguments with their mum and dad between now and Christmas, and I get them all to promise that, and I think the parents love that too,” he says.
“The other one I always say is ‘you’ve got to make your bed every morning’, that’s quite funny - and helping with the dishes.
“The ones at the preschool get a bit of a laugh out of that … and that is probably why I get invited back to the preschools all the time, because the parents can get two or three weeks of obedience.”
Peter says in the Motueka Christmas Parade, which jingles all the way down High St on 1 December, it is joyful to witness the surprise and generosity, despite “losing 2kg in sweat”.
“You’ll pick out certain people that know me, especially the young ones, and I’ll call out their name if they can hear it,” he says.
“You can see the look of puzzlement on their face, they’re thinking ‘how come Santa knows me?’ and that’s really great.
“I do see it gets a little bit swamped with older kids these days and it’s not about the Santa, it’s about the lollies now. But I hope that feeling of generosity comes across to everybody.
“So, if one of the kids has got ten lollies and the other kid has got one, they share them, and I always say that if they can be heard over the yelling.”
Peter’s message to his Santa successor, if he parks his reindeer next year, was simply to have fun and due to the beard and hat, some mischief would not go astray.
