HERE COMES SANTA!
114th parade is city’s biggest yet with 32 floats, 21 bands, thousands of volunteers and loads of families out to greet the big guy
Zyana Mangubat didn’t care that she was about to witness the largest parade — of any kind — in the city’s history.
The antler-wearing Stouffville tot was there for the star of the show.
“Santa!” Zyana, 7, erupted when asked what she was most looking forward to Sunday from Toronto’s annual Santa Claus Parade.
But before she’d see the rotund elf — and bid him bring her a Hatchimal egg — some 32 floats, 21 marching bands and thousands of clowns, knights, skunks, fish, princesses and upside-down monkeys would pass by her University Ave. perch.
And those combined floats and players would make the 114th edition of the Christmas season kick off larger than any of its predecessors, says Clay Charters, the parade’s executive director.
“And if the Santa Claus parade has always been the largest in the city and this is our largest Santa Claus parade, then I’m inclined to agree with (the largest parade ever claim),” Charters says.
“The previous high mark was 30 floats, so we’re two floats longer than there’s ever been before.”
The parade’s fanciful new entrants included a float sponsored by Sunwing.ca and Autentica Cuba featuring sunning elves on a Caribbean beach as well as a Canada Protection Plan entrant called Sledding Fun. There were also19 returning sponsors who’d done complete rebuilds of previous floats, Charters says. Charters says his not-for-profit organization relied on more than 3,000 staff and volunteers to build, march in and marshal this year’s parade.
Kalayce Brown — a parade sticker on her 6-year-old face — also enjoyed Santa and was asking him for an L. O. L Surprise Doll. Dinosaur-mad James Chong, 7, hoped to see a Jurassic World movie float, but would have to make do with a Toronto Raptors raptor dribbling a basketball across a Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment entrant.
Charters is not surprised that the parade is still growing and beckoning hundreds of thousands of kids and their parents to Toronto’s downtown sidewalks in this video-game age.
“I think that even if kids are attracted to video games and their screens, inevitably everyone wants to be able to share experiences with people they love,” he says.
“And that’s what the Santa Claus Parade offers, is a chance to get outside, to share something with your friends and family, and to build traditions with them.”
The three-hour parade travelled from Christie Pits, wending along Bloor St., University Ave, and Wellington, Yonge and Front Sts., before breaking up at the St. Lawrence Market.