Santa Claus is coming to town – at least, his annual parade in Airdrie will be.
Airdrie's Main Street will see the return of the city's annual Santa Claus Parade on Dec. 3 at 5 p.m.
According to Sammy Morros, a member of Airdrie Parades, which organizes the annual Christmastime event, registration is now open to sign up floats or volunteer.
“We’ve been off for the whole pandemic and haven’t had a Christmas parade since 2019, so we’re really excited to get back to what we think is a favourite tradition in Airdrie,” she said. "That’s one of our favourite ways to gather en masse to kick off the holiday season and we’re excited to do it in the way we think we do it best.”
The long-awaited return of the annual Santa Claus Parade comes after Airdrie Parades was able to put on its Canada Day Parade earlier this year. Morros said the community came out in full force on July 1 for that event.
“Canada Day was a huge success. We saw some of the highest numbers of attendees we had ever had, which was really exciting considering we were on the Friday of a long weekend,” she said.
“We figured everyone would be out of town, but still saw a ton of people, which was really cool. We didn’t reach the float numbers of previous years, but that worked to our advantage and it was a great parade.
“There were cool attractions and businesses who had never had the chance to participate before were able to join. It was absolutely a smashing success and we were so thrilled.”
The Santa Claus parade is smaller than the July 1 event, with an average of 45 to 50 floats – roughly half the size of the Canada Day parade. The smaller participation means the parade is shorter, lasting just 30 to 45 minutes.
For more information on the upcoming Christmas parade, or to register a float, visit Airdrie Parades' Facebook page or email [email protected]
