One Dartmouth community is doing its part to try and spread some joy again this holiday season, and it’s all for a good cause.
Colby South- known as Colby ‘North’ through the holidays- for the second year in a row, has more than 100, 12-foot blow-up Santas that light up, displayed on the lawns of nearly everyone in the neighborhood.
Photo: Caitlin Snow/Acadia Broadcasting
The initiative is attached to a local charity and this year they are hoping to exceed how much they raised in 2023- roughly $43,000.
Community member Meagan Cole tells our newsroom, it’s been awesome, and the idea caught on really quick.
How it started
It all began with a one community member and a video they watched on Instagram.
Cole says, a neighborhood in Toronto put up huge Santas, so they decided they should do something similar of their own.
“A few of us were like, ‘yeah, that would be awesome’…kind of thinking like a handful of us would run right out and grab the Santa’s from Costco. Then more and more people just jumped on board.”
Cole adds, pretty quickly they had 30 or 40 and they thought that was amazing, but more people kept asking and it just took off.
Raising for a good cause
When they realized that having dozens of large Santas grace the lawns of homes all over the neighborhood, would likely cause attention, they decided to attach a charity to it.
Cole says, they chose Feed Nova Scotia and thought even raising $500 would be nice, but they surpassed that by tens of thousands of dollars.
“We set our initial goal at $1,000, thinking we were really like…shooting for the stars. And very quickly, we had already raised, like multiple thousands of dollars. By the end of the season, I think we like, just hit $43,000. It was insane.”
According to Cole, residents just couldn’t believe how much money they were raking in, especially on nights through the weekend.
This year, they are hoping to reach a minimum of $40,000 but, she says, any amount is wonderful.
What to expect
If you head into the Santa tour, you’ll see a ‘Colby North’ sign with a QR code that you can scan if you’d like to donate, with smaller signs throughout the neighborhood.
The sign as you enter the Santa tour. Photo: Caitlin Snow/Acadia Broadcasting
In addition to that, if you go in around supper time, community members take turns acting as ‘elves’ with stockings to accept food donations.
As you drive or walk through, there is a sea of Santas, and this year, some are adding reindeer and other inflatables into the mix.
Cole says, as they kicked things off Sunday night, they already had over 120 homes participating.
“There’s like 190 houses in the neighborhood. Last year, we hit 137 Santas. So, we’re really hoping like…those last 40 houses jump on the bandwagon this year and get a Santa. Or some kind of inflatable up.”
Friendly competition
Word has gotten around.
Cole says, they have some friendly competition.
“It’s so cool to see how many people are participating in it. We do have a few rival neighborhoods this year that are doing similar things. We’ve got a snowman community and a reindeer community.”
Weather dependent
The inflatables do not do well in bad weather.
If you want to know if they are on full display, Cole suggests checking out their Facebook page, The Colby North Santa Tour, where they will keep the public informed.
“We don’t want people to, you know, be disappointed to come to the community and the Santas not be up.”
This week, the forecast looks good.
“It’s for a good cause,” Cole says, “and it brings a ton of smiles to people’s faces.”
