'Tis the season in Onkaparinga

Christmas is coming, and the City of Onkaparinga invites you to get into the spirit with council-run events and opportunities.

Read on to see what's happening and go to Christmas 2023 for all the details, with more information added each week.

Donate to the Onkaparinga Christmas Tree

Make Christmas special for local children by donating to the Onkaparinga Christmas Tree.

You can donate unwrapped gifts for children up to the age of 18 from 6 November to 8 December at four locations:

the Noarlunga Council Office
the Aldinga Library
the Aberfoyle Hub Library
the Woodcroft Community Centre.

Your gifts will be distributed with the assistance of the Southern Adelaide Domestic Violence Service, the Anglicare Outer Southern Hub, Christian Care and Support Centre in Aldinga Beach, and the Salvation Army in Morphett Vale.

Join Santa at the Onkaparinga Christmas Pageant

Join Santa, his elves and around 50 festive floats at the Onkaparinga Christmas Pageant on Sunday 19 November.

After the pageant, you can continue the fun at Christmas in the Park at Rotary Park on the Esplanade. It’s a free event with live music and entertainment, market stalls, and the opportunity to take a picture with Santa.

The pageant starts at 10am from the corner of Hunt Crescent and Beach Road at Christies Beach, before heading down Beach Road to the Esplanade. Bring your sunblock, hats, water and chalk (for street art).

See the Onkaparinga website for all the details.

Enter the Mayor’s Christmas Lights Competition

You’ve got your Christmas lights untangled and dusted off those models of sleighs and reindeer.

It’s taken you weeks, and now you’ve set up a jolly display in your front yard that will bring joy to young and old alike.

You flip the switch and the whole glorious light show comes to life.

But there’s one thing you’ve forgotten – you haven’t put in your entry for Mayor Were’s Christmas Lights Competition.

Head to Onkaparinga’s Christmas webpage to enter in one of two categories: best single house or best street.

A condition of entry is that entrants agree to have their property addresses listed and their displays photographed for promotional material. So if you’re entering the best street competition, make sure everyone with lights in your street has agreed.

Entries are open until 30 November.

After you’ve entered the competition, don’t forget to add your address to the Christmas lights map.

Go Christmas light spotting

Dusk has come and gone. It’s time to go Christmas light spotting. The kids, grandies and friends are bundled in the car, but where to start?

Easy. Onkaparinga’s Christmas lights map will guide you to all the great displays in the region.

You’ll see string lights, winking stars, kangaroos pulling sleds, trees stretching into the sky and, of course, Santa.

And if you have a Christmas lights display of your own, make sure you add your address to the Christmas lights map so there’s a trail of lights right across Onkaparinga.

After the celebrations

You’ve taken down the decorations and the leaves on the Christmas tree are wilting. So what do you do now?

Disposing of your Christmas tree – whether it’s real or artificial – and all your shiny decorations can be a bit of a conundrum. So here are a few helpful hints.

Plant your real Christmas tree in the garden – if it’s growing in a pot – or, if it’s a cut tree, you can mulch it for your garden or cut it into pieces to put in your green organics bin.

Artificial trees and decorations can be packed away and used again next year – or given to charity if they’re in good condition.

If they’ve seen better days, put them in the red landfill bin, cutting trees into bin-size pieces. Most decorations are made from a composite of different materials such as plastic, metal, glue, wax and paper, so they cannot be separated for recycling.

But before you do that, check out what can be recycled or reused. Metal frames can go to scrap metal merchants. Paper can go in the yellow recycling bin. Plastic leaves, tinsel and ribbons can be remade into decorations for next year.

Next Christmas, you might make your own recyclable and compostable decorations, creating wrapping paper, decorative chains, wreaths, baubles and figurines out of natural and recycled materials such as pine cones, native grasses, paper, fabric, pegs, wool, string, and even your old decorations and artificial Christmas tree.

For more information on any of these great events and opportunities, go to Christmas 2023, phone 8384 0666 or email mail@onkaparinga.sa.gov.au

For guidance on how to dispose of your Christmas waste, go to Onkaparinga’s A-Z disposal guide or visit the Sustainable Onkaparinga Facebook page on living more sustainably.