Families Flock To Norco’s Annual Christmas Festival And Parade

Norco’s annual Christmas Festival kicked off bright and early Saturday morning as families gathered in Nellie Weaver Hall for breakfast with Santa.

“We sold out just shortly after 8 a.m. for breakfast with Santa and then we sell activity wristbands all day,” Kelli Newton, communications manager for the city of Norco, said. “The response is always positive, but it’s especially positive this year.”

The event, which is usually held the second Saturday of December, was paused in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but was back to full programming this year, Newton said.

For those who missed breakfast with Santa, there were other activities such as building your own toy with kits donated by the Home Depot, riding on a miniature train around the grounds, rock climbing, carnival games, miniature horseback riding and a petting zoo.

“The sense of small town community, I just love it,” Jennifer Shinedling said. “And it’s just getting everyone in the Christmas spirit.”

Also in the spirit were Shinedling’s daughters—6-year-old Shelby and 4-year-old Ella—who said their favorite part of the festival was the carnival games and prizes.

Vendors selling everything from food and clothes to accessories and home décor were staged in front of Nellie Weaver Hall. One of the more unique stands belonged to Wayne Pitzler who recycles old horseshoes and turns them into decorative pieces for the home.

“Horses are shod every eight weeks,” he said. “The shoer has to take off the old shoes and put on a new set of shoes, and I get the old shoes.”

For the past six years, Pitzler has focused his energy on creating pieces that are not only unique, but also immediately useful to those who purchase them. Items such as wreaths are popular during the holiday season while others like racks for shoes, hats and belt buckles remain popular throughout the year.

“I like ingenious things,” he said. “The welcome sign up front is one of my favorites because it’s creative and yet it’s useful and has both kinds of features to it.”

Pitzler said he liked selling his horseshoe creations in Norco, also known as Horsetown, USA because of the community’s love of horses.

“I’ve told a lot of people: if I can’t sell what I make in Norco, I pretty much should shut it down and go do something else,” he said.

California Highway Patrol officers were also on hand to accept toy donations for the agency’s annual CHiPs For Kids Toy Drive.

“We’ve been doing it for years,” Officer Dan Olivas said. “And what we are doing is collecting toys from everybody who’s out here making donations and we try to get these toys back into the community to the families who need help this year.”

In addition to collecting toys, Olivas and the other officers were also handing out coloring pages to kids, taking photos in front of CHP’s display cars and enjoying the festival.

“Just being able to talk with everybody, honestly, is the best thing, you know,” he said. “One on one interaction, getting to see all the kids, getting to see all these cool family costumes that they put on together, you know, it’s a lot of fun.”

The Parade of Lights started at 5 p.m. and traveled down 6th Street from Corona Avenue to the George Ingalls Event Center where the festival will remain open until 9 p.m.