Santa Claus was late to the party this year because of an emergency drill on one of Norwegian’s cruise ships but his tardiness did not weigh down the excitement of over 200 Belize City children eager to start the Christmas season with some much needed cheer. On Tuesday, December 2, over two hundred children from Belize City received Christmas gifts from Norwegian Cruise Line at the Belize Tourism Board’s 11th Annual Children Christmas Party on the grounds of the House of Culture.
Alro Cansino, Destination Planning and Development Assistant of the BTB, says many of the children are from the Dorothy Menzies Child Care Center and Wesley Primary School. Organizers invite children from Dorothy Menzies and a different primary school each year. This year a number of invitations were also given to community organizations in Lake Independence, Queen Square, Port Loyola and Collet constituencies. Cansino says the organizing committee was granted a waiver by the Ministry of Finance to bring in the gifts from Norwegian free of duty.
The children received animal shaped balloons from a very talented young clown who kept them entertained until a crew from one of Norwegian Cruise Line’s ships came dressed as Santa Claus accompanied by his elves. Normally the children receive gifts then they are treated to a meal and other refreshments. This year the crew was delayed because of an emergency drill so the meal was shared first. After eating, many lined up to get their faces painted by one of Ozzy the Clown’s assistants. The infants were busy dancing and playing as Santa and his elves came dancing to hype Christmas beats. They were extremely excited. Santa is throughly still a rock star as the children flocked towards him before order was restored. St. Nick then went to sit down on stage so the children got a chance to meet him one at a time. He handed out gifts to all the nice children.
Cansino says the Christmas party is an event the BTB looks forward to: “There is no better feeling than seeing the smiles on those children’s faces and knowing you played a part to make that happen.”
