This year will mark the 34th year the operators of Princeton Airport have hosted a Santa Fly-In on Christmas Eve day. The Nierenberg family started the event at a neighboring airport and brought the tradition to the Princeton Airport in 1985. Airport Manager Kenneth Nierenberg has confirmed Santa’s arrival time to be 11 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 24.
Participants come from wide and far for this event. If you wish to have your children participate, please bring a wrapped gift for each child with the name in large print to the lobby of the airport. If you have several children, wrap the gifts in the same paper and tie them together to expedite the distribution. Gifts should be not larger than 12 inches to accommodate Santa.
There is no charge for the event, which will be held regardless of the weather conditions. It is recommended parents bring a camera. Adults are advised to bring the children prior to 11 a.m. and wait in the maintenance hangar. Princeton Airport Flying Tigers will be serving cocoa and cookies. Pat McKinley, a local folk singer, will lead the audience in holiday songs.
Once contact has been made with Santa, the children will go to the ramp in front of the hangar where they can watch Santa fly low over the runway. He then will land, and everyone will return to the hangar, and Santa will distribute each gift individually. In fairness to all, Santa will distribute the gifts in the order in which they are received at the airport. Typically, the gift distribution lasts about an hour and a half and is completed by 1 p.m. when Santa will continue his journey.
The most important facet of this event is the advance collection of gifts for needy children. Collection of donated gifts began the day after Thanksgiving and ends at 6 p.m. tomorrow (Dec. 16) so county workers for the Mercer County Board of Social Services can arrange the best matches for needy families. The gifts can be deposited in the “chimneys” in the lobby at the airport between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Unwrapped gifts of toys books or scarves, mittens or other clothing items are welcome as are personal checks made out to the “FoodBank Network of Somerset County.” The airport also has a container for the public to donate canned or boxed food to help the local food banks in this particularly difficult year.
Princeton Airport is located in Montgomery Township, 3.5 miles north of Princeton on Route 206. For further information, call 609-921-3100 or www.princetonairport.com.
Naomi Nierenberg
Steve Nierenberg
Princeton Airport
Montgomery