Santa Claus is coming to … your TV screen
Steve Russell photos / Toronto Star Virtual parade filmed at Canada’s Wonderland will air Dec. 5 on CTV
Yes Virginia, there will be a Santa Claus parade, just not in the usual way.
The annual event, which traditionally fills the streets of downtown Toronto with throngs of marchers and thousands of eager children and their families, will become, in the words of president and CEO Clay Charters, a “madefor-TV Christmas special” that will air on Dec. 5 on CTV.
“We recognized early on that we were going to have to do something different and that … we weren’t going to be able to run the parade as we normally do,” Charters said.
Planning began in early summer with broadcast partner CTV to move to a television format. “This parade is 116 years old and we’re really thankful that we’re still able to bring it to Canadians, in a safe way,” Charters said.
Filming took place over two nights at Canada’s Wonderland — the first night with marching bands, the second with floats — under rigorous COVID-19 guidelines, but with as little fanfare or public notice as possible, Charters said.
“We weren’t able to share that news because we didn’t want a crowd to gather when we were doing our filming,” he explained.
“The biggest impact, from a COVID perspective, is the attention to detail and the safety guidelines, making sure everyone is following those same rules that are being shared with the general public, maintaining social distance, frequent handwashing, washing of equipment, wearing masks — we’re all wearing masks — and limiting the number of people in a room,” Charters said.
And although the parade features marching bands and 24 floats — some new and one of them carrying Santa Claus — one element that had to be sacrificed is the hundreds of marchers that are usually part of every parade.
“This parade will be the first that doesn’t feature a host of marchers. We typically have 800 to 1,000 marchers in a parade,” Charters said. “We won’t have those marchers, simply because that would require too many people in a small space trying on costumes, things like that.”
That includes saying goodbye for this year to the Celebrity Clowns, in place since 1982 as a fundraising component for the non-profit parade.
Charters is hoping parade fans will help make up that financial shortfall by participating online. Organizers have launched the Celebrity Clown (at Home) program. For a fee, participants will receive clown kits with wigs, makeup, costumes and accessories.
The virtual clowns are encouraged to share their experience on digital media, and a video of at-home clowns will be included in the broadcast.
Several musical guests — set to be announced in coming days — will also be interwoven into the show.
“The parade, for years, is how people signal the start of their holiday season,” Charters said. “We couldn’t let that tradition be eclipsed and we wanted to ensure that Canadians enjoy that tradition, maybe in a slightly different way. (Hopefully) it’ll be a little bit of relief of some weight off their lives, even if it’s just for a couple of hours on a Saturday as they start thinking of Christmas.”