Lining up at dawn for concert tickets
Hundreds come to 1 Yonge St. to get tickets for the Star’s annual carolling performance
For almost 10 years, Hugh Arm- strong’s family has lived near St. Paul’s Bloor Street Church and, for10 years, they’ve wished they’d gotten tickets to the Star’s annual Christmas Carol Concert.
“I know it’s phenomenal,” Armstrong said, adding we “are angry at ourselves every year for not getting tickets.”
So this year, he made his way down to 1 Yonge St. at about 8 a.m. and joined hundreds of others waiting for the coveted tickets to one of two shows taking place at the church, at Bloor and Jarvis Sts., on Dec. 2.
Although nowhere near the front of the line, Kathy Owen, who was just behind Armstrong, was confident both of them would be leaving with tickets.
Owen, who has been to the concert more than five times, knows the routine and came prepared.
“I’ve got my chair first and foremost — my beach chair — and my puzzles and a pencil, because I know I’ll be sitting for at least an hour,” she said. But it’s worth it. “The music is just stirring. It’s such a lovely way to start off the Christmas season,” she said, adding that The Canadian Staff Band of The Salvation Army — one of nine choirs set to perform — is “brilliant” and “it’s fun to hear the children’s choir.”
Steven Presacco travelled from Aurora and arrived at about 5 a.m. to claim the first spot in line. Although he has never been to the concert, he planned to get tickets for his wife, his mother and his in-laws for this year’s event.
He’s looking forward to the music, the grandeur — and the church itself.
And of course, it’s all for a good cause — the Star’s Santa Claus Fund, which provides Christmas gift boxes to 45,000 underprivileged children aged12 and younger in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Pickering and Ajax.
Recipients receive a warm shirt (toddlers get a fleece-lined tracksuit while newborn infants get a fivepiece set that includes onesies), a warm hat, warm gloves or mittens, socks, a toy, a book, cookies and dental hygiene items (ages 4 and up) inside.
For many of the kids, it’s the only present they’ll receive.
It’s a program that’s helped brighten the holiday for underprivileged children for more than100 years, and the carol event is a key fundraiser, with donations collected during each of the two concerts.
Last year, the event brought in more than $42,000 for the charity. In 2010, the highest year on record, the Star raised more than $55,000. About 1,500 people attend each of the two shows each year.
Back in the 1920s and 1930s, Sandy Young’s father, Harry Joy, and his family, who was later a supplier for the Toronto Star, received Santa Claus Fund gift boxes.
They wouldn’t have had a Christmas without them, said Young, who has been to the concert more than 30 times with her husband, Wayne Gilbert.
“We just enjoy it, it’s just absolutely wonderful,” Young said.
The couple arrived a little later than they usually do Tuesday morning — at about 6:30 or 6:45 a.m. — but they still had plenty of time to chat with their neighbours in line before the tickets were released at 9 a.m.
Wilhelmina Heyliger and her sister Odessa Cromwell have been coming for a few years to wait in line for tickets for the family.
They love the music but, for them and many others, Canon Dr. Giles Bryant is a major highlight. Bryant, an Anglican canon and the Star’s “Christmas messenger,” has emceed every concert since it began in 1979.
“He’s very entertaining,” Cromwell said.
“He always makes us laugh,” her sister added. If you have been touched by the Santa Claus Fund or have a story to tell, please email santaclausfund@thestar.ca.