Michelle Loubon

Every boy and girl got a brand new toy when the Port-of-Spain May­or Louis Lee Sing host­ed the Cor­po­ra­tion's an­nu­al Christ­mas treat. He was joined by Deputy May­or, Ker­ron Valen­tine, coun­cil­lors, and vol­un­teers. Sport­ing San­ta Claus hats, Port-of-Spain Cor­po­ra­tion coun­cil­lors, Deanne Bou­caud and Keisha Arm­strong al­so helped with the dis­tri­b­u­tion of toys.

De­spite the in­clement weath­er, both par­ents and chil­dren in at­ten­dance at the Wood­ford Square event ap­peared to be in good spir­its and en­joy­ing them­selves.

Sur­vey­ing the scene, Lee Sing said: "This is phe­nom­e­nal. It is a suc­cess. Peo­ple seem to be hap­py and the chil­dren are very hap­py. The rain is falling. But the tents are there." He thanked the burgess­es for par­tic­i­pat­ing in the event, which was meant to spread Christ­mas cheer. He com­pli­ment­ed his team, in­clud­ing Valen­tine for the ef­fi­cient or­gan­i­sa­tion of the event.

May­or Lee Singh shook hands, as he walked through the crowd, and posed for pho­tographs with the bright-eyed chil­dren. A few par­ents popped by and thanked Lee Sing for re­mem­ber­ing the in­no­cents at Christ­mas time. One lit­tle girl, Kadisha Cayenne, said: "I am glad to be here. I am hop­ing to get a nice toy."

Toys in hand, some chil­dren head­ed for the boun­cy cas­tles, while oth­ers stopped to get their faces paint­ed. Un­der the canopy of trees, they rode hors­es, too. Pop corn and cot­ton can­dy were pre­pared on the stick. And as they munched on their blue can­dy, bunch­es of bal­loons bobbed all around.

Mean­while, en­ter­tain­ment in­clud­ed steel­pan, Dale, a for­mer Trinidad The­atre Work­shop ac­tor, mu­sic by the In­mates prison band, and DJ Starchild took a mo­ment to greet some of his friends and fans in the "free­world."

And no Christ­mas par­ty would be com­plete with­out San­ta Claus (fire­man Hugh Pem­ber­ton). Decked in the clas­sic red and white, and sport­ing a long beard, he mor­phed in­to an avun­cu­lar fig­ure. Lead­ing a group of chil­dren, he said: "I have been play­ing San­ta for the past 20 years. I wouldn't ex­change it for all the trea­sures of the world. It is my joy to give every boy and girl a toy."