KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Enjoy the decorated boats in St. Paul and St. Herman Harbors.
Vote the Boat — Vote for your favorite.
Santa arrives by C.G. Helo (weather permitting) at 5 p.m. Saturday.
If you haven’t been down to Kodiak’s two boat harbors in a while, Saturday evening is a great time to go. Don’t worry that it may be dark, that just enhances the experience of seeing boats dressed up their finest Christmas lights.
The Harbor Lights Festival is Saturday from 5 until 9 p.m.
throughout both St. Paul and St. Herman Harbors and at the Kodiak Convention Center.
It’s what Toby Sullivan calls a free form event.
“There are no directions to this event. This is a free form event. You can go to the convention center first. You can go to the harbor first. People can do as their heart desires. It’s kind of purposely not agenda driven. There’s two parts to it. One part is walking through the harbor and looking at the lights with your friends and your kids and your dogs and your family. And the other part is up at the convention center where there’ll be some entertainment and there’ll be hot drinks and you can vote for your favorite decorated boat.”
Sullivan is the executive director at the Kodiak Maritime Museum, which sponsors the annual event. He encourages everyone to check out boats in both harbors and to plan to meet old friends.
“It is definitely a social event. I mean given the time of the yea, it’s dark and kind of gloomy sometimes. And it’s really nice to have a community event where, I definitely see people I haven’t seen since last December. Every year in the harbor and that’s really a nice kind of a think, you know?”
And this year, if you’ve got kids, you might want to get out to the spit early because, weather permitting, a special guest plans to attend. Thanks to the Coast Guard Air Station.
“The other part, that’s new this year, is that Santa is going to arrive at 5 o’clock on the harbor spit, I would say weather permitting, as most things are. But, the Coast Guard has volunteered a helicopter to fly him in. And he’ll get out of the helicopter around 5 o’clock over on the harbor spit, kind of near the gazebo, out on that end of it, and he’ll walk up to the convention center and people can talk with him and have their picture taken with him, ask him for presents for Christmas. Whatever it takes.”
So grab a flashlight, grab the kids and bundle up.
Again, Santa is scheduled to arrive at the spit at 5:00, and the event runs through 9 p.m.
