Meet the generous woman behind Santa’s sleigh tour in Northampton neighbourhood and where to see the big man this weekend

A woman who used to look forward to seeing Santa every year as a child has organised a festive tour to spread joy this Christmas.

Liz Dean, who works in The Village Bakery in Duston, decided to go ahead with organising a Santa’s sleigh tour around the neighbourhood just three weeks ago.

After rapid organisation, Santa in a decorated sleigh accompanied by elves, reindeer and Christmas music will hit the streets of Duston on Sunday (December 20).

Liz said: “Kids have had such a rubbish year with not going to school and seeing their friends.

“I used to love seeing Santa when I was kid and it used to make my year, so doing something like this has always been in my head.

“Recently, I’ve lost two friends to cancer so I decided about three weeks ago to go for it as I wanted something to focus on and something to make people happy.

“I’m also moving to the Isle of Wight soon and I’ve had so much fun living here for the last 12 years and I have made a lot of friends, so it’s a good way to give back to the community.

“I wanted to give a little extra Christmas sparkle to everyone this year.”

Since making the decision less than a month ago, Liz has enlisted friends and family to dress up as Santa, elves and reindeer for the tour.

She has also managed to connect with a company that is supplying a trailer to be used as the sleigh, as well as donations of decorations to decorate the sleigh and sweets to hand out to children.

The event has already grown in popularity and the organiser, who will also be dressed as an elf, is expecting to see plenty of families waving at Santa on Sunday.

Liz added: “The response has been brilliant and I'm so excited for it.

“I think the post on Facebook has been shared more than 200 times so I’m really excited to get out there.

“I just hope we can make everyone’s day and year a little bit happier.”

Although Liz will not be able to organise the Christmas tour again next year due to moving away, she is happy to pass the baton on to someone else if residents want to see it again.

Liz is expecting this year’s tour, which will start at 4pm from St Luke’s Centre off Main Road on Sunday and then hit nearly 40 streets across Duston and New Duston, to take between three and four hours.

See the attached picture of the schedule to find out which streets the sleigh will be driving along.

Message from the editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you