Some wet weather over the weekend didn’t stop a number of people from heading out to Roc Holiday Village in downtown Rochester over the weekend.
It’s the 5th year for the event that includes ice skating at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park in downtown, and all kinds of other activities for the kids, as well as refreshments and handcrafted goods for sale.
A co-founder of the event is Kelli Marsh and she views Roc Holiday Village as a good opportunity for unity among a variety of people in Rochester.
“We started Roc Holliday Village with the real hope of bringing the community together making it a place that people can come celebrate the holidays but also to support our community we have a lot of local vendors in our village and also helping the charities that are in there 17 different charities,” said Marsh.
Marsh said that despite a brief COVID hiatus, she's excited about this year’s event and said that overall it has seen consistent growth.
The 17-day extravaganza includes a chance to meet Santa Claus. Christopher “Bear” Brown is an African-American Santa, and he said it’s important to have that kind of representation at an event like this.
“I think it’s important that kids of all ethnicities, cultures and backgrounds get a chance to see Santa displayed in versions that reflect them,” said Brown. “I do feel that it’s important that they get to be able to enjoy some of the magic of Christmas, (and) they should be able to do that in versions that reflect who they are."
Roc Holiday Village continues until December 23.
