St. George Santa Parade rolls with COVID-19 mitigations

FILE – Santa Claus waves during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Nov. 28, 2019, in New York. Macy’s said Santa Claus won’t be greeting kids at its flagship New York store this year due to the coronavirus, interrupting a holiday tradition started nearly 160 years ago. However, Macy’s said the jolly old man will still appear at the end of the televised Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

Posted: Dec 6, 2020 / 07:11 PM AST

Updated: Dec 6, 2020 / 07:11 PM AST

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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)– Santa from the St. George’s Fire Department is practicing social distancing this year.

The fire department is hosting their annual Santa parade where Santa collects donations from the neighborhoods. To limit contact, this year the fire department is asking locals to place their donations at the end the driveway or have them pre-bagged and ready for you to come out and greet Santa.

“It’s a great feeling,” Eldon Ledoux, Public Information Officer said. “But, one of the things I miss is to watch the small children hand the canned good, hand the boxes to volunteers and parents teaching their children how to give back.”

The fire department is collecting the following items

Non-Perishable food
Canned goods
Toys
Candy

The parade will take place the first two weekends of December. Parades will leave the fire stations at 10 a.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday, returning at 5 p.m.

On December 12 and 13 Santa will be riding through the neighborhoods on the south and west side (Mississippi River side) of Airline Hwy.