Christmas parade about community
People lined the streets of Niagara-on-the-Lake on a sunny but cold Saturday morning for the town’s annual Christmas parade.
Bob Cheriton has been a volunteer with the parade for 16 years and he has gotten the art of the parade down to a fine science.
“There is such as thing as too long and there is such a thing as too short a parade, and what we have is a parade that will get past a point, any point, in one hour,” said Cheriton, who takes care of all of the media for parade.
Most people are at the parade with children in tow, and Cheriton doesn’t let that fact go unnoticed.
“You have a bunch of young children and they have to wait, they have certain patience. Everybody still has a smile on their face at one o’clock,” he said of the parade’s planned conclusion.
The parade had about 96 entries this year, which is about the same as previous years with a few firsttime entries.
Special guest was Down Beat Percussion, the official drumline of the Buffalo Bills.
“They were supposed to be here last year but they got snowed in to Buffalo,” said Cheriton.
St. Marks Church was in this year for the first time, he said, of the church celebrating its 225th anniversary.
A variety of entrants included ATVs, dogs dressed for the season, floats with Christmas scenes, historical scenes, sports scenes and bands. People on horseback, on bicycles and Segways all kept the parade lively and colourful.
“We have a good mix of community entrants,” said Cheriton.
“What I like to tell people about the parade, what’s different, what is it about it, what’s the character? It really is a mirror on the community. You see the Shaw, you see the sailing club, the schools and some of the churches, the museum and, of course, the fire department is always here, someone has to set off the sirens.”