Santa has again chosen to ride aboard Sea Flight, owned by Trevor Mears, of Carey Bay.

Mr Mears said it was an honour to skipper “Santa’s chariot”, a responsibility he has enjoyed since 2015.

“The Bose sound system I’ve got on the boat has been absolutely wonderful, and I think Santa chooses our boat because we play Christmas carols and Christmas music out over the lake and people can hear us coming,” Mr Mears said.

“Santa definitely likes the sound system and those long range speakers.”

Sea Flight is continuing a tradition established over 35 years by Graham Burgess aboard the Wangi Queen, and later by the Solar Sailor.

Mr Mears said he never realised how big an attraction the Santa Boat was until his first Christmas Eve cruise with Santa.

“It blew me away. We arrived at Rathmines F jetty and I thought there might be 50 or 100 people there, but there were estimates of thousands,” he said.

The tradition involves Santa and his helpers stopping at local jetties and handing out lolly bags to children who come out to meet the Big Man.

In 2015, Santa’s helpers from the Rotary Club of Toronto Sunrise quickly realised that their lolly stash was in danger of running out.

“We just scraped through that year, and it’s grown every year to the point that this year we have 1500 packets of lollies to get us through,” Mr Mears said.

“Everybody has been so keen about it that people have apparently been ringing the council asking where and when the Santa Boat will be arriving.”

Santa, too, has been looking forward to the cruise.

“Santa stands up at the front of the boat where he has a rope to hang onto while he jogs in time to the music.”

Mr Mears said the Rotary support crew would come ashore with collection buckets into which families would be invited to make a gold coin donation for Rotary.

The Santa Boat will depart Bolton Point at 4.30pm; arriving at Toronto wharf at 5pm; Kilaben Bay at 6pm; Rathmines at 6.30pm; and Wangi Wangi at 7.15pm.