REIGNING ON THE PARADE
From the floats to the route to the best spots to watch, we’ve got you covered for Sunday’s Santa Claus festivities. Special section, Christmas carol song sheet inside.
There will be reds, there will be whites, there will be greens. Along the roughly six-kilometre route that will weave through Toronto’s downtown core on Nov. 19, thousands upon thousands of rosy-cheeked and eagereyed spectators will gather together for the 113th edition of the Santa Claus Parade.
What they’ll take part in is a Canadian tradition that’s more than a century old — complete with dancing elves, exuberant music, boisterous clowns, colossal handcrafted floats and an appearance by a pretty famous pair from the North Pole. Those who will remark, on the day, that the parade hasn’t changed much in 112 years will be right. In fact, the event’s organizers wouldn’t have it any other way.
“There are no big secrets at the Santa Claus Parade and we don’t want there to be,” says Peter Beresford, president and CEO of the annual event. “And the reason why? We have two stars of the day to focus on: Santa and Mrs. Claus.”
It is this emphasis on the time-honoured delights of the season that Beresford says has also inspired this year’s parade’s new logo — a simple rendering of Santa’s smiling face illustrated in Norman Rockwell style, accompanied by the declaration of the event as “the original.”
It is a title, Beresford says, that the city of Toronto should be proud to contain, having hosted the first parade of its kind in Canada in December of 1905.
“Every year there will be corners of the streets where a grandfather and grandmother are cheering on the floats with their children and their grandchildren beside them,” he says. “When you have three generations that come out to watch, that’s a pretty cool thing.”
And with 800,000 to a million people from Toronto and beyond expected to descend upon the downtown core on parade day, what would Beresford say is the key to drawing the merrymaking masses back year after year?
First of all, the event is free, he says. “And the show is almost two hours long, complete with a 25-act set and 3,000 marchers.
To families going to the parade this year, Beresford points to a new program with Metrolinx that will see up to 64-per-cent cost savings on parade day for families, as well as a designated train service that will run from Milton, Kitchener, Stouffville and Barrie to the parade’s nearby Union Station.
Additionally, Beresford reminds parade-goers that Lakeshore lines both east and west will be running on their regular routes every half an hour to get spectators to and from their favourite vantage points.
“I’m often asked where the very best spot is to watch the parade,” he says. “The honest answer is that every place along the route is your best bet. It’s fabulous from start to finish.”
The parade, which Beresford will be walking in alongside Toronto Mayor John Tory, will follow its usual path, starting at Christie Pits and making its way to St. Lawrence Market, with a slight route change that will see participants head south to Front St. via Yonge St., just before the parade’s end point.
But despite any small differences, Beresford says, the finale of the Santa Claus Parade featuring the arrival of the man in the red suit will forever be familiar to its attendees, and the memories of the day will always be guaranteed to last.