CENTERBURG – Jason Harter, owner of 1834 Midway Tavern, arranged for Santa Claus to pay Centerburg residents a respectfully-distanced visit on Tuesday, Dec. 22.
Santa rode around town on the toolbox of Harter’s black dually pickup with strobe lights and waved to the kids and kids-at-heart, Harter said.
“I’ve been talking with the board of health, I’ve been talking with the Fire Department, the state highway patrol, Knox County Police Department, along with our village administrators to make sure I’m abiding by everything,” Harter told the Mount Vernon News. “In no way are we making this into a parade, but we just want to be able to get this out rolling around and that way the kiddos can at least come out and wave to him.”
Since the tavern opened in 2018, Harter has been very involved in the village with fundraisers and community outreach. In previous years, Santa set up shop in the tavern, and children were able to sit on his lap and see the big guy up close.
This year, Harter didn’t want people to miss out just because of COVID-19.
“We always try to do something with the community just to keep everybody — especially in this time of all our restrictions trying to make some kind of normalcy so people can feel good about the holiday season,” Harter said.
Waves, a passing photo and a hearty “Ho, ho, ho” will be the only things Santa gives out this year.
“One of the things that I promised the village administrator is that we won’t be doing any stops except for, of course, traffic stops,” Harter said.
They had considered passing out candy canes, but decided that would bring people too close to the truck for safety.
Santa avoided Main Street and zigzagged down as many side streets as he could until it was too dark to see him.
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