Floats get final primp from Santa work crew
Each year new float themes keep things current at the parade
Bringing the magic of the Santa Claus Parade to life is not a job, it’s a calling.
The small team of float designers, builders and decorators at the Santa Claus warehouse may have come from far and wide, but they share a devotion to delight and spend all year working for a few special hours when their creations will stream through the city centre.
With only five days to go until the 2012 Santa Claus Parade, the floats are almost done, lined up and ready to go.
There’s the gingerbread man surfing on a mountain of sugar; the giant Christmas Lego float; Old McDonald’s Farm and even a replica of the Grey Cup.
“Alongside Mother Goose, you’ll find rock star Barbies,” said creative director Alfred Iannarelli.
Each year new float themes are invented to keep things current, the long-time parade veteran said. But the amazement the floats provoke always stays the same. “I always remember when I walked into the workshop 42 years ago, and just being blown away by how big it was,” he said. “I still see that wonder on the faces of people who come out to see the floats on parade.”
Joseph McDonald is one of the most senior float builders with the parade, having drawn, built, sanded and painted about 70 floats since he started 26 years ago.
“It’s been my life’s work,” he said as touched up the paint on a giant fish playing the piano.
The underwater band float is one of this year’s most exciting, he said. It will feature a half-dozen animat- ed aquatic creatures each playing their own instrument.
“Not all floats are animated, but this one had to be,” he said, saying that despite the complexity, it came together surprisingly quickly.
Each float is designed and built by a single person.
They can take anywhere from two to three months to complete before a decorator is brought in for the finishing touches.
“We used to make them all out of chicken wire and papier-mâché,” he said, but now they use Styrofoam more and more. “It’s an amazing material,” he said, describing how it’s cut with band saws, then sanded to a shiny finish before being painted. Looking back over the years, McDonald says it’s tough to pick a favourite float. “The Muppet float last year was quite a thrill,” he said. But he will always think fondly of his first float — Rip Van Winkle, in the 1986 parade. “I was quite nervous. I was just a student,” he said. “But I’ll never forget that one.” Krysta Massey was only a kid in the crowd when McDonald’s Rip Van Winkle float took to the streets. Now, she’s working beside him, in paint-daubed pants putting the finishing touches on a giant yellow blowfish. “I grew up here and can still remember floats from the parades when I was a kid,” she said. “It’s great to be a part of such a Toronto institution.”