Ah….it truly is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year – right?? (sorry Staples). Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming! My good friends and family are laughing right now because I’m not a fan of Christmas at all. Not my gig. If I could, I’d check out from now until January 4th. But – as of last year, I’m vowing to embrace it all for my kid. Saturday we were at Cloverdale Mall – (fyi…best mall Santa EVER). Santa was making his big entrance prior to holding court for the next month or so. We sat through the magic show from hell and then the big guy came in. Suffice to say the look on Will’s face had me in tears. What IS IT about this man in red that the kids get?!?! This got me totally pumped for the next day when my sister and I were taking our kids to the big Santa parade.
I learned some things from that experience that I’d like to share with you now…..
a. Do NOT go out drinking the night before the Santa Claus Parade.
b. Do NOT arrive at 11:15 am, thinking you are so smart to be so early….you ain’t early and you ain’t getting a from row seat!
c. People can smoke hands free! I saw one granny – decked out in her hunting gear – drawing awesome chalk drawings for her grandkids on the street…on all fours…smoking with no hands..fascinating and revolting all at once!
d. Bring a cooler. Not only will it be a great seat for your kids…it will also hold the pitcher of ceasars that I advise you bring with you.
e. Wear Depends. Enough said.
f. Wear a hockey helmet with face guard. Those people chucking candy out are apparently venting their frustration at being roped into this job because they throw the candy and hard. (I joke about this here but it was truly ridiculous).
g. Find a high schooler who wants to make a few bucks and send him downtown at 9:30a with all your chairs and cooler and pay him $100 to hold your spot. Then arrive at 1:30. So civilized AND maybe they can claim it towards their volunteer hours?!?
h. Be prepared for questions. Will asked me yesterday – ‘Why dat tiger wear shoes?’…hmmm good question – no answer.
i. Do NOT arrive at 1:30 and think you can let your kid sit in front of anyone else…oh and if they do, don’t claim you need to sit with them. Parade Rage….
j. If you do go early, bring your iPod…sitting at listening to parents yell at their kids for not sitting in their chairs for the 3 hours prior to parade start adds to hangover (see point A)
k. Watch the parade at home….with hot chocolate…in front of a fire…decorating a tree…(stop laughing Christine)…
Oh boy. I’m about to drag my half year old daughter to this thing. Hopefully she falls asleep and we can leave after twenty minutes. Moms idea. Ya hoo. Wish me luck.
how the crap did I miss this post?!?! Just seeing it now.
Glad to guys had fun!! (you did, right?)
You need to start a new tradition (see “K”)
Our little town parade is AWESOME. It’s at night and it’s beautiful with all the lights and music…and no breaks for the tv network.
although i can’t see why there would be breaks since it wasn’t a live broadcast? the show was broadcast from the ROM and didn’t start on ctv until 4:30. maybe it was just poor planning but it shouldn’t be that long regardless….
Mommy – thanks for commenting in! Okay…the breaks for CTV! This makes sense! i.e. why it happened but it was totally unacceptable. It’s sad because I want this to be a tradition…but experience #1…sucked. PARTS OF IT…that is….we did indeed have some laughs!!!
Hi, small thing, but the 3-5 minute silent break estimate applies to the occasional times the parade ran smoothly. There were, in fact, breaks as long as 30 minutes or more. As you can see, I’m still kinda bummed out because to have something as wonderful as our Santa Claus Parade ruined is really sad.
I too sat through the wind tunnel on Yonge street and endured delay after delay which really was unfortunate. I felt sorry for the young band members who had to be freezing by the end. Fortunately my 3 and a half year old was satisfied with the floats she saw and did not feel the need to stay to see santa. After 90 minutes of cold and too many long gaps we left before Santa arrived. I will definitely give the parade a miss next year, with a PVR we can record it, zip through the commercials, enjoy cocoa and popcorn and not have to deal with the crazy crowds!!!
For something that is free I hate to be negative but two years in a row the parade has taken longer than it should with too many long gaps between floats and other attractions.
You don’t know me but I liked your blog. This was the first year I hated the Santa Claus Parade. It was ruined by all the long breaks in between floats. People around us were blaming CTV for stretching it out to add commercial breaks for the broadcast. I bet that is true. If the 3-5 minute silent breaks between the boring floats weren’t enough, from where we stood, the bands also took a break and were either silent or just played drums. I guess they were saving their breath for the grandstands of the corporate sponsors? It couldn’t be a coincidence that they ALL stopped playing right where we were? Plus the corporate sponsor grandstand, with armed guards to keep my civilian spawn from enjoying comfy seating, had the gall to hire their own fake Santa so there were TWO Santas at one point. Talk about awkward.
Very disappointing and probably the last time I drag the family out to stare at pavement and boring movie/Yorkdale ads on wheels for 3-4 hours (including the wait to hold your spot before the parade starts). Don’t even get me started on the sleezy Yorkdale float with reindeer dressed up for a night on the corner of Church and Wellesley.
I’m ALL ABOUT “K” and you cannot convince me otherwise. We went once, 2 years ago, and it was more chilled-to-the-bone I-can’t-see-anything misery that I need never, ever do again. No thanks.
Also? Marching bands make me cry. Perhaps that’s a post for another day though.
Best Santa Claus parade…Inveremere BC…beautiful floats…antique trucks and
so on…5 pm…so all the Christmas lights were twinkling…silouettes of the mountain
in the background…took all of half an hour…after…bonfires in the park/ravine…where parents and kids gathered… only parade I wasn’t frozen after!! Wished my kids were still little…It was magical…
I despise parades with all of my being. I’m already dreading taking my little one to her first big Santa Claus Parade next year. Am I wrong to hope that she won’t love it, and then we can watch it from the comfort of our own home on TV?
K
YES
K.
hahaha.
oh Julie! GREAT IDEA on Queens park…although I think I’ll be joining Jackie next year….:)
yup, saw the parade rage right beside us. a group of 4 adults squeezed their way in front of the family next to us. it was ridiculous as there was may be 2 square feet of space. the father called them on it and they moved, thanks goodness.
i must say, tho’ we were at queen’s park and it was nice to have the grass behind us to run around in!
So funny. Fantastic tips. I will definitely curl up with some hot chocolates and warm blankets next year to watch the parade with the kids.
I am very into the anonymous postings I guess 😉
Come with us next year! We saw the whole parade with no jackets and no chill! We were on the 9th floor, with crafts to keep the kiddies busy, hallways for them to run around on, arrived 1:15, and saw everything beautifully! We even get free parking 😉 It was a pretty good gig!
ummm…I’m pretty sure I warned you on Twitter last week, Sara.
But you’ve got photos in your albums that I’ll never have.