Bill Atwood
Times-Chronicle
Plans are currently underway for Osoyoos’ adjusted Christmas events. While the town normally has many in-person events put on by the Osoyoos Festival Society, including the annual parade, with COVID-19 in its second wave across the province that has been cancelled.
Mayor Sue McKortoff, chair of the light-up committee with the society, thinks that residents will be understanding especially since the festival society was unable to organize its two other big events – their Easter Eggstravaganza and the July 1 parade.
“So people are understanding, they know what’s happened, they understand it and they don’t want to put people in a place where they might feel uncomfortable,” McKortoff said.
“I honestly don’t think you’re going to find people, while they might be disappointed that there isn’t a parade, they totally understand why there isn’t. So we’re okay with it,” she said.
McKortoff explained that the festival tried to make a parade happen this year, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
“We’re legally not allowed to do it anyway. I said, ‘look, if we get everybody outside, they’ve got masks on and we put markers down the street so that families could stay a certain distance apart,’” she said.
The festival society contacted the Ministry of Health and the answer was no because there is no guarantee that there will be fewer than 50 people.
“We understand that and we will work with whatever the rules are, and we certainly don’t want anybody getting sick. So we will make sure that we do our best,” said McKortoff.
The festival society is currently working with other organizations to put on more socially distanced events including having Santa Claus appear on local radio to read letters and answer questions from kids.
The contest for best Christmas lights in town will also be back for its second year. Beginning in December residents are asked to get in the festive spirit by decorating their homes or businesses.
In the middle of the month Osoyoos Fire Rescue will take Santa around on a fire truck to deliver prizes (donated by Home Hardware and Home Building Centre) to the five best decorated homes, and five best businesses. The winners will also receive yard signs (for homes) or window signs (for businesses) indicating they are the best decorated for 2020.
Other events that are still in the works include a Elf on the Shelf scavenger hunt by the Sonora Centre.
The elf, Trixie, will be in a different location in an Osoyoos park each week. Residents will then have six days to find Trixie with themselves and/or their family in the background. Clues will be announced by EZRock Osoyoos at 8:15 a.m. on Dec. 3, 10 and 17. Competitors must send their photo to [email protected] by 11:59 p.m. the following Wednesday. Please include where you found Trixie, a contact name and phone number. There will be a weekly draw for $50 and an overall grand prize of $100.
“It’s not as big as we’ve been doing for 25 years, it won’t be as big and as fancy as we usually do. But we thought this would be kind of fun for kids and fun for people to get their homes and their businesses decorated,” McKortoff said.
