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Neighbors Keep Tradition Afloat

Tribune file photo 1997

Pictured here in 1997, the floating Santa is an annual tradition in Seminole Heights.

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By KATHY STEELE

ksteele@tampatrib.com

Published: December 8, 2008

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - With white lights twinkling, Santa Claus and his reindeer float away the holidays on Lake Roberta. Off and on for nearly half a century, the jolly elf has been a buoyant presence from Thanksgiving into the new year.

He is launched into the lake without fanfare - generally the weekend after Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday he will be the reason for neighbors come together for good cheer and a holiday concert by the Dickens Carolers, sponsored by the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association.

The concert is held on Clifton Street, which abuts Lake Roberta. Previously Larry Alberalla and Marty Purtell hosted it at their Roberta Circle home.

As many as 500 people have filled the front yard and spilled into the street.

"I'd have people come up to my front door and ask when the concert is. It's a neighborhood tradition," Alberalla said. "We look forward to it."

Partly because of crowd size, the concert was moved to Clifton Street, a home to holiday celebrations years ago.

Beverly Williams remembers the 1950s and 60s, before the Clifton Street singers, when festivities drew neighbors on foot and visitors whose cars ringed Roberta Circle.

"It was bumper to bumper going around the lake," said Williams, who has lived on Clifton Street, east of the lake, for more than 50 years. "It was a real crowd draw."

Her husband, Don, remembers Tampa police directing traffic at Nebraska Avenue.

Recollections of past ceremonies go back at least to 1952. That's when the Santa float won first place in the Tampa Junior Chamber of Commerce's "Brighten Up Tampa Contest", according to a 1997 article in The Tampa Tribune.

Williams remembers neighborhood houses sparkling with lights. With Santa safely afloat, neighbors headed to the Lawrence home for a fish fry.

"All the neighbors took a dish," she said.

No one knows when Santa took a hiatus from drifting on the lake. "One year he just didn't get put out," said Don Williams.

Williams and a Hampton Terrace neighbor, Dick Cook, helped revive the tradition more than 10 years ago.

They ordered a new Santa with reindeer, a sleigh and tree, all cut from plywood and draped in lights. It floated on an 8-by-12-foot raft buoyed by four 55-gallon drums. "I went out and found plastic drums so we didn't use them one year and then they'd rust out," Don Williams said.

Santa was back.

"I think it's great that we have it," he said.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Holiday concert at Lake Roberta with the Dickens Carolers.

WHERE: 1000 block of East Clifton Street on Lake Roberta

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday

INFO: www.oldseminoleheights.com

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