Tauranga\u2019s festive season will officially begin on Friday, November 21, with the annual lighting of the Christmas tree at Masonic Park.<\/p>\n
The community celebration is set to bring together wh\u0101nau, friends, neighbours and holiday enthusiasts for an evening of music, colour and cheer.<\/p>\n
The event will feature face painting, live performances from the Katikati Mural Town Singers and the Fuse Drummers, and a special appearance from Santa.<\/p>\n
Adding to the excitement, one local resident will be selected by The Breeze Tauranga\u2014through community nominations\u2014to switch on the city\u2019s giant Christmas tree. Nominations are now open.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what Christmas in Tauranga is all about. Bringing people together, celebrating the spirit of giving, and creating moments that make memories,\u201d says Te Papa Ward Councillor Rod Taylor.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time, we\u2019re inviting our community to share stories of our local good sorts, to be in to win the honour of lighting up the tree and kicking off Christmas in the city centre. This moment represents the heart of the season, community connection, generosity, and the joy of giving, especially as we support the Christmas Convoy to deliver gifts and food to those who could use a little extra support this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donations collected by the Christmas Convoy will be distributed to families and individuals throughout Tauranga.<\/p>\n
The festivities continue throughout December with a full calendar of events set to fill the city centre with music and entertainment, all while supporting local businesses.<\/p>\n
Highlights include:<\/p>\n
\n\tFamily Christmas Movies on the Waterfront \u2013 Fridays from 5 December
\n\tPocket-Size-Play \u2013 Saturday activities for tamariki at Masonic Park\/Te Ao M\u0101rama
\n\tSaturday Concert Series \u2013 featuring Inachord Singers, Tauranga Civic Choir and Fuse Drummers
\n\tSanta\u2019s Summer Grotto \u2013 open December 6 to Christmas Eve, presented by Downtown Tauranga
\n\tLate Night Christmas Shopping \u2013 Thursday, December 18, from 4pm\u20138pm, thanks to Downtown Tauranga
\n\tWrap It Up Downtown \u2013 curated end-of-year party packages across city centre venues
<\/p>\n
To help make visits stress-free, Tauranga City Council is reminding shoppers of convenient parking options.<\/p>\n
All council-operated locations offer a 20-minute grace period, with free parking after 5pm on weekdays, all weekend, and on public holidays. Longer-stay options are available at Dive Crescent and in the Spring and Elizabeth Street parking buildings, with payment available at machines or via the PayMyPark app.<\/p>\n
Find out more at www.tauranga.govt.nz\/parking<\/a>. Full event details can be found at whatsontauranga.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tauranga residents are encouraged to come together, sing along, shop local and soak up the spirit of the season as the city lights up for Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tauranga\u2019s festive season will officially begin on Friday, November 21, with the annual lighting of the Christmas tree…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-143132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}