Results tagged “santaclausparade”

              

The Santa Claus Parade was started by the now-defunct Eaton’s department store in 1905 with just one attraction: Santa. This year, on Sunday, November 15, the parade will feature twenty-six floats, twenty-one bands, and more than a million pieces of candy. To get a sneak peak at this year's edition of the one-hundred-and-five-year-old parade, Torontoist visited its Weston-area workshop last Thursday and talked to the people behind the magic—including the big man himself.

Every Saturday morning Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.

Santa’s elves have been out on Queen Street, just east of University Avenue across from the Canadian Opera Company, earmarking eighteen spots on the sidewalk for Sunday’s Santa Claus Parade. We don’t recall seeing this in previous years, and a quick walk along a chunk of the parade route reveals no other reserved spaces. With people customarily arriving a couple of hours ahead of the 12:30 p.m. start time, it’s hard to imagine how this will play out: will someone simply wishing to sit on the sidewalk without a lawn chair be allowed to do so? Will they have to surrender their spot if someone with a lawn chair shows up late? What are the parameters for a “lawn chair,” anyway? Does a deckchair count? What if someone hauls a Muskoka chair—or a La-Z-Boy recliner—to Queen Street, with a photograph to prove it used to sit on their lawn? What about the sidewalk to either side of the “lawn-chair parking only” spots? Will people be permitted to stand there? And who’s going to enforce the whole thing? A paid-duty cop? On whose dime? Santa’s? He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows where you’ll be sitting...

That headline is only slightly misleading in order to alert you to Kensington's annual Festival of Lights, celebrating the winter Solstice tomorrow night. But we can assure you that there will be giant puppets and there will be fire, if not necessarily at the same time.

If you like crowds, candy, and Christmas, but hate––absolutely hate––having time off of work, celebrating holidays at the proper time of year, and snow, this weekend's Santa Claus Parade is your month-too-early Mecca. Now in its hundred and third year, the parade will begin on Sunday, November 18, at 12:30 p.m., traveling from Bloor and Christie, east along Bloor to Avenue, south on Avenue, around Queen's Park, and further south along University to Queen....

Shopping and the Santa Claus Parade are all fine and good, but baking over a hearth and drinking apple cider might just be a better way to celebrate the holidays. Most of the City’s museums are open year-round, but they really shine during the holiday season. Giant Edwardian Christmas tree, anyone? Historical cooking and paper chains? Yes please!

Downtown hosted the annual Santa Claus Parade on Sunday, kicking off another season of gratuitous shopping. In related news, the Nintendo Wii was released and quickly sold out.

There are bleachers set up along Queen's Park, we've had huge amounts of rainfall over the past few days, it's mid-November, and nobody's even slightly interested in Christmas yet - and you know what that means: it's time for the annual Santa Claus Parade!

Clown (as he blasts the girl with silly string from a fresh can): Thanks!