Rotaract’s Christmas in the Park

Christmas in the Park is a now-annual event organised by Rotaract, a sort of junior Rotary club. It’s a king-size Christmas party for kids but plenty of parents, relatives and big brothers and sisters come along to join in the fun.
The ‘park’ this year was the national auditorium and it’s fortunate the organisers went with the indoor venue because the windy, wet weather we’ve been subject to recently continued on Monday - overcast skies, the occasional torrential downpour, mud-slides at Nikao (again! The new indoor stadium is going to end up at the bottom of the road in Rose and Ria’s Tepuka store at this rate.)
Down at the auditorium it was muddy underfoot but the food stalls were under cover and there’s not much that will stop a Cook Islander eating on a holiday occasion! Santa put in a brief appearance but flew off just as the party was getting going. Still there was plenty to keep the kids entertained including lolly scrambles, whacking each other with the night’s most popular toy – glowing Jedi warrior light sabres, and local singers and dancers. The men from the Philipines community had everyone laughing with a hilarious jig involving coconut shells attached to knees, shoulders and hips.
The theme for the night was ‘Colours of da world’ and some of the kids (and their parents) put together great costumes with the best winning prizes.
Congratulations to the hard-working Rotaract members, and also the parent Rotary organisation, for getting the Christmas season off to a great start.