In case you didn’t notice…Santa came to town!
The annual Santa Claus Parade, hosted by the Rotary Club of North Muskoka, rolled down Main Street along with dozens of floats from local organizations and businesses. There were the requisite candy canes handed to kids lining the route, Huntsville’s Green Team was there to collect wrappers, coffee cups and garbage from parade-goers, and there was even a pooch parade.
Volunteers from Kimberley-Clark wrapped things up, distributing pocket packs of Kleenex as the accompanied the jolly old elf—who was riding in the float they built for him—for the length of the parade.
Were you there? Which was your favourite float? Besides Santa, of course!
The Huntsville Community Choir sang cheery holiday carols prior to the tree-lighting on the Town Hall steps
Young Everett Yang, 2, was enthralled by the gingerbread people in the Coldwell Banker Thompson window prior to the parade
The Hudson served up free hot apple cider to parade goers
-
- There were lots of letters waiting for Santa at Christmas Tyme
-
- Santa (but not the real Santa) had a bit of an, um, incident at The Mill on Main
-
- The Algonquin Theatre wishes everyone a Merry Christmas
Parade goers like (from left) Thomas Seymour, Seth Craymer, Spring Gray Craymer and Teddy the dog had tons of festive spirit
(From left) Eva Martins, Alex Striez, and Eden (in back), Mary and Grace Martins had snow much fun waiting for Santa to arrive
The Muskoka Dance Academy provided pre-parade entertainment
Ray Porter was the honourary parade marshall
-
- The Huntsville Lake of Bays Fire Dept ladder truck was all decked out for Christmas
-
- Cameron of Lochiel Pipes and Drums
-
- The Royal Canadian Legion branch 232
Christmas trees got candy?!
The Green Team walked the parade route to collect garbage and recyclables
JJ Dance was accompanied by a live band
Deerhurst Resort had a festive float
-
- Huntsville Public School
-
- The Huntsville Suzuki School of Music
-
- The Children’s Foundation of Muskoka
PACHI, the porcupine, the mascot for the Huntsville 2019 Ontario 55+ Winter Games, wants everyone to know the Games are coming to Huntsville March 5-7, 2019
-
- Faith Baptist Church
-
- Bethel Huntsville had a toboggan race
Mrs. Claus made sure Santa was on time
It’s Santa!
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.
The Cameron of Lochiel Drum and Pipe Band were exceptional again but then you expect that don’t you ? Great Parade again !
I too thought it was a great parade. I was also concerned that by the end of the parade adults and their children (grandchildren?) were moving onto the road more and more. Cogeco camera had to be moved because the spectators kept moving outward. The one thing that I noticed again this year was the lack of info about the Town Mayor and Councillors who walked in the parade. Great job of walking but who are you? Last year I stood behind a couple who obviously were not from town(visitors) and wondered who the two men walking near the front of the parade were. I appreciated that the Honorary Parade Marshall and our MPP were identified.
The parade night was perfect. Snowbanks and a real winter feeling. I also had some safety concerns regarding children begging for candy with trick or treat bags. Way too close to the trucks and floats going down the street. Otherwise, we are so lucky to have community members ready, willing and able to create floats for a memorable night!
Way to go Huntsville. Looks like a great parade and the weather was good too.
It was a delightful evening! The Town of Huntsville really knows how to put on an excellent event. Thank you.
The only thing I would like to recommend, if I may, is to shut down the street by 5:30 p.m. and make sure all vehicles parked on the street are removed. Children were so excited, jumping off the planters on to the street, regardless of the parents shouting “don’t” a thousand million times. What a horrible tragedy it would have been if a child had slipped under the wheels of a passing motorist while waiting for Santa Claus.
Otherwise, well done!!
JJ’s Dance, for that live band. I know live music is a tradition, there are the marching pipers and drummers, brass (or silver) bands on flatbeds, etc., but I’ve never seen a rock band on a Muskoka Santa parade float before. And as soon as they launched into a song, the young dancers all knew exactly what to do. Brilliant.
.
The whole parade was awesome. Perfect weather, great floats, well-dressed pooches, lights festooning everything, the spine-tingling suspense of wondering whether Tony Clement would show his face (I didn’t see him). Was it the biggest ever? It seemed that way. Raphi and I have video evidence.
Last night was the perfect night for the parade. We enjoyed all the floats, lights, music and dancers. The choir before the parade ,singing Christmas carols , put us in the mood when you could hear them, but sometimes you couldn’t due to the traffic that was allowed to continue on the Main Street. Surely these vehicles could have been rerouted for the singing and tree lighting and they would not have parked on the street making it hard for everyone to see the parade as you had to peer out from between the trucks or actually go right out on the street and take a chance on getting too close to the big trucks in the event. In the future No Parking signs could be put up on the Main Street and the traffic rerouted before the choir singing.