Thousands of people packed downtown Sudbury on Saturday for the city’s annual Santa Claus Parade, a family-friendly event featuring floats inspired by classic Christmas films. The parade, which featured 68 registered entries, was led by Franco-Ontarian music icon Chuck Labelle as its musical grand marshal. The event culminated with a float carrying the big elf himself, Santa Claus. Bilingual, thematic celebration Ahead of the parade, Labelle highlighted the inclusive nature of his performance. “Going to do bilingual with some French and English content. So, everybody will recognize the song and everybody’s going to be happy,” Labelle told CTV News. The theme for this year’s event was Christmas movies. From the ground CTV News notice that ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ appears to be a local favourite based on the number of related floats and costumes, with ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ a close second. Jeff MacIntyre, the executive director of Downtown Sudbury, explained the criteria for participants. “The criteria for the floats … (was) show a lot of energy, play some music and make sure that you’re on theme and you’re really celebrating the Christmas movie that you chose,” MacIntyre said. Enhanced experience for children The parade kicked off with a fireworks display. Officials said the event also featured an enhanced experience for kids this year, with the inclusion of a colouring contest and a special letter-to-Santa initiative. Canada Post workers were stationed along the parade route to pick up children’s letters before hand-delivering them to Old St. Nick. The event appeared to be well-received by the thousands in attendance. With files from CTVNorthernOntario.ca journalist Madison Marier
