Santa Claus is coming to a city street near you on Saturday, Dec. 19.
McMinnville’s Parks and Recreation Department and Fire Department will be offering a COVID-friendly glimpse of Santa. He will be escorted through residential streets on a firetruck, waving to residents as he passes.
“Since the parade was canceled, we’ve been looking at other cities and other city’s options,” said McMinnville Parks and Recreation director Scott McCord. “One of them was having a travel-a-long with Santa Claus on a firetruck. There shouldn’t be mass gatherings with Santa driving by for 10 seconds to wave.”
Santa will begin the tour from Pioneer Community Church on Union Hill Road at 12 p.m. From there, he will be taking a left onto Meadowbrook Drive and a right onto Bybee Branch Road. The firetruck will circle through Bybee Woods Drive and Dogwood Pointe Drive, before making its way back onto Bybee Branch Road, onto Cascade Avenue and Oriole Drive.
Areas and approximate times:
12:35 p.m. –West End Avenue and Garfield Street. Downtown Chancery and onto Mullican Street.
12:55 p.m. – Crossing the bypass and into that residential neighborhood: Lagoon, Skyline, Moss Clearview and Delano drives.
1:30 p.m. – From Delano onto Red Road, turning into the areas of Falcon Drive and Duck Hawk Drive.
1:40 p.m. – From Three Star Mall, down Sparta Street and into the areas of White, Mauzy, Gay and Moffitt streets.
2 p.m. – Crossing Sparta Street, from Moffitt to Red Road. Traveling the areas of Fair, Caldwell, Towles and Rebel Hill.
The procession will be in the Twin Oaks area at 2:25 p.m., East End Drive area at 2:40 p.m., on Creek Lane at 3 p.m., Stone Creek Boulevard at 3:10 p.m., Westwood area between 3:25 and 3:45 p.m.
Lastly, Santa will take a trip down Bradford Street at 4:15, turning onto Lakeshore Drive, Old Shelbyville Road and onto West Main Street, traveling the length of Main Street and ending at intersection beside Beersheba Heights Tower and ending at approximately 5 p.m.
McMinnville Parks and Recreation’s event coordinator Kyle Clyde would like to stress that the times given are not exact.
“The times are approximate,” said Clyde. “Santa won’t be making any stops. We’re just going to slowly travel along the route so Santa can wave at everyone as he passes. This is a COVID-friendly visit from Santa.”
Maps of the route can be found on the city of McMinnville’s website and Parks and Recreation’s Facebook page.
