The noble Santa Moose is still standing tall in Wellington Park despite being vandalized for a second time in two weeks.
Advertisement 2
Article content
The life-size fiber glass moose, part of the Simcoe Christmas Panorama, had one of its antlers snapped off two weeks ago. Last weekend, someone ripped off the other antler and destroyed it.
Article content
“It’s huge,” Lucas Wilson, a volunteer with the Christmas Panorama committee, said of the festive animal. “It must be seven feet tall. The person had to go over the fence surrounding it and climb up on him.”
Wilson said the vandalism is particularly “disappointing and sad” because, until this year, Santa Moose hadn’t been in the park since 2019. It was in the workshop getting spruced up after being part of Panorama for many years.
Before arriving in Simcoe, Santa Moose was part of Moose in the City, a public art display in Toronto in 2000, which included 326 life-sized moose sculptures decorated by local artists and scattered throughout the city.
Advertisement 3
Article content
Wilson said Panorama volunteers at the time were anxious to get Santa Moose, decorated in a giant red suit trimmed with white fur, and bid more than $5,000 for the moose in an online auction.
Unfortunately, Wilson said, Santa Moose is just the latest victim of continuing vandalism since Panorama’s inception 65 years ago.
“The very first year, people unscrewed the glass lights and smashed them on the rocks,” he said.
Along with the moose marring last weekend, vandals also snapped lights on the Panorama bridge, leaving half of it dark.
Wilson said it costs up to $10,000 a year just to replace the burn-outs among the 500,000 lights that illuminate Simcoe’s downtown parks for Christmas Panorama. Thousands of additional dollars are spent on paint, building supplies, decor and props to keep more than 60 displays in shape.
Advertisement 4
Article content
The festival, operated entirely by volunteers and funded by donations and sponsorships, drew between 30,000 and 40,000 visitors to Simcoe last year.
A Go Fund Me set up several years ago to help raise money to cover Panorama costs has reached only about $4,800 of its $7,000 goal.
Panorama’s start goes back to 1958 when, after another rainy Santa Claus parade, several floats were left in Wellington Park in the hope people could continue to enjoy them in better weather. By the following year, Panorama, now Ontario’s oldest Christmas light festival, was in full swing.
Despite losing its majestic crown, Panorama volunteers say Santa Moose will remain part of this year’s display.
“He looks a little sad but he’s still standing proud – and he’s got cute ears,” said Wilson.
“We aren’t going to let some Grinches steal our Christmas.”
Donations to Simcoe Christmas Panorama can be made at gofundme.com/f/supportpanorama.
Article content