Santa Claus was the main attraction for the thousands of spectators that attended the 44th annual Collierville Christmas Parade on Friday, December 3, 2021. He moved down the parade route in style in his brand new sleigh that was gifted to him by the Town of Collierville Parks and Recreation Department. Richard Logston, a Town employee for 31 years, singlehandedly designed, constructed, and painted the sleigh for Santa.

Parks and Recreation Staff made the decision Santa needed a new sleigh for Christmas this year and they knew just the person for the job. Staff commissioned Richard Logston for the design. Logston has a BFA in Theatre Design and Technical Production and many years of experience in scenery construction. His work has been part of many productions at the Harrell Theatre.

Logston was shown a YouTube video of a man making a sleigh for his church as his only instruction. After that, he made his own design and once that was approved by the team at Parks and Recreation, he started work on the sleigh. Construction started at the beginning of October and the final touches were put on the sleigh the week of the parade. The sleigh was even made large enough to accommodate Santa, Mrs. Claus, some elves and a big bag of presents.

“He took that initial concept and created his own design from scratch then constructed and painted it. He absolutely exceeded our expectations for the sleigh!” said Tourism Director Ashley Carver.

When asked how he felt seeing his creation in the Christmas Parade, Logston said, “It was a reward for all the hard work that went in to making it.”

The Collierville Christmas Parade is always a special event, but this year it was made even more so thanks to some hardworking and talented Town of Collierville employees.