Let’s take a trip back down Santa Claus Lane and reminisce about a time when all was merry and bright, as the bells were ringing and the children were singing, because that’s just what we do when it's Christmastime again.
Compared to the granddaddy of all Canadian Santa Claus parades, the Toronto incarnation, which just recently celebrated 120 years, Sudbury’s Santa Claus Parade is a youthfully spry 66 years, having first taken place in 1958.
That first parade included a mishmash of themes running the gamut from a cluster of clowns to walking peanuts to floats featuring nursery rhymes and northern hunting themes.
The most interesting float of all was Canadian Tire’s “Santa’s Rocket Express” float featuring a stylized pre-Apollo program rocket surrounded by aliens awaiting their gifts. But, of course, the main attraction was the big guy himself.
Santa, waving with both hands to the crowds on both sides of the street, stood inside his gigantic sleigh trailing his eight prancing reindeer.
In the parade’s early years, it was organized by the Sudbury Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce) with backing from the Retail Merchants Association. All labour in making floats and staging the parade was volunteered by the Jaycees.
In 1959, thousands went out to watch as Santa Claus, preceded by 40 clowns, four blaring brass bands and twelve scintillating floats featuring creatures from fairyland made his pre-Christmas round through four kilometres of downtown streets. The parade, which was a Saturday morning event at the time, wound around on Elgin to Durham and past St. Joseph's Hospital to give the sick children a peek, before crisscrossing every street downtown, finishing at Sudbury Arena.
The lead car of the parade carried Mayor Joe Fabbro and MPPs Rheal Belisle and Elmer Sopha, while on all sides clowns were somersaulting and skipping. Some of the parade highlights included the horned figure of Old Man Winter (all 13 feet) towering above a little log cabin; the Sudbury hydro float featuring a rampaging Thor, God of Thunder; and the Wahnapitae Lumber float, a toyland boasting revolving figures of princes, priests and people.
They were accompanied by hardy cheerleaders and the Sudbury Tech Band, blowing “Jingle Bells” through cold horns and tin whistles.
Business came to a standstill as the parade went by. Windows, like the streets below, were packed with young and old, all seeking the best vantage point for the parade. Youngsters swarmed around the floats and mobbed Santa along every inch of the route as his sleigh (pulled by a team of eight horses) swept through the downtown. He reportedly received a more rapturous welcome from a more densely packed crowd than came out for the Queen's visit that July.
In 1961, Ron Meredith, parade committee chairman, stated that Santa Claus received his biggest welcome ever in Sudbury. “Fantastic, the largest ever,” he exclaimed, of the estimated turnout of about 75,000 spectators.
The parade began at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at Sudbury Arena before following a similar route to previous years. The parade included four cars, nine bands, 12 floats and the hijinks of about 50 clowns. A new model float for Santa himself was introduced, pulled by a clown-driven tractor.
All along the route, the crowd stood three and four deep, with people peering from upstairs windows and others climbing telephone poles or standing on cars.
In some places, they were jammed from the curb to the store windows. The parade was so long that it met itself at the corner of Elm and Durham streets. Its winding route enabled some children to see the full parade twice and to wave to Santa in three or four different locations.
Santa, himself, was impressed. “It was wonderful. I'm going to do my best to see that all those good little boys and girls get just what they want for Christmas," he said in an exclusive interview.
In 1966, a committee of citizens was struck to organize the parade going forward, as the Jaycees and downtown merchants withdrew sponsorship of the parade due to other commitments.
For the 1967 centennial year, the Santa Claus Parade again brought out youngsters and parents galore to cram downtown streets, this time on a Sunday. It almost didn’t happen, as it was only 32 days before the parade that a council of local community groups decided that a Santa Claus Parade, only in its 10th year, would be held.
There were 19 floats, including the perennial fairy tale favourites: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. More than 100 members of local cheerleading groups, seven majorette troupes, seven beauty queens (including Miss Snow Queen and Miss Centennial Go-Go Queen), more than 40 horses (a nod to the popularity of westerns at the time, represented the Cartwrights, Roy Rogers, Zorro and the Lone Ranger), and 12 well-dressed marching bands joined in.
A set of ribboned "giant mechanical toys,” real life versions of children’s toy models received at Christmas, joined in the fun: a 25-ton mobile crane, a garbage truck, bulk hauler, and similar pieces of heavy industrial machinery. Santa brought near-perfect weather to greet his fans along the 2.5-kilometre long parade. It took nearly an hour to pass any one point in what was described as “one of the most spectacular pre-Christmas celebrations.”
In 1974, the parade got under way at 1.30 p.m. on a Sunday from Sudbury Arena. As always, the weather didn't deter Sudburians of all ages from turning out to see the more than 30 floats, bands and colourfully costumed groups snaking through downtown before finishing behind the arena in a slimmed down 45-minute parade.
Spectators were delighted by the massive floats, which included: Bell Canada’s “Santa's Workshop”; the YMCA’s “Christmas Elves campout”; the Sudbury Lions Club’s “Sudbury Christmas” (depicting some prominent local buildings, including Laurentian University and the Superstack); and Copper Cliff High School’s “Santa's Chimney.”
By the way, the 1974 parade was the first (and from what I could find) only time that Santa’s Sudbury alias was used during parade promotion. When not standing in his position of prominence at the tail end of the parade, he preferred to go by the name Wilf Salo.
The following year, 1975, saw the media of the day cheekily write about the parade that “Several local politicians, Mayor Joe Fabbro, Sudbury MPP Bud Germa and Sudbury MP Jim Jerome, received (their) free publicity just by riding in the parade, which was financed primarily by city council funds. And several people received free clown costumes by not returning the borrowed apparel before the citizens' committee's deadline to return the costumes to Toronto.” As always, the jolly old elf was clearly the main attraction. Like music fans at a rock concert, seas of children surged around Santa Claus.
Ten years later, in 1985, the Santa spirit was still rolling along the streets of downtown Sudbury. At 1 p.m., one of the largest Santa Claus parades in the city's history (up to that point), with about 60 floats, marching bands and clowns, brought the festive spirit to residents. The merry column marched south from the corner of Notre Dame Avenue and Kathleen Street before zigzagging through downtown, coming to a stop at Civic Square.
In 1987, Santa was joined by 60 floats, seven marching bands and 75 clowns in standard slap-happy garb. As parade chair Gaston Binette said, “We've got clowns playing music, doing gymnastics. We've also got clowns with pooper-scoopers. They might steal the show." You might think that year’s theme was clowns but it was actually “Christmas around the world.”
An estimated 20-25,000 people watched the parade, which started at 1 p.m. and followed a route perfected over the previous few years. Inco's float, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” was judged to be the best of the bunch.
As with the previous year, another lucky youngster joined Santa on the ultimate float.
Ryan McGuire, 8, was the excited winner of the “Ride With Santa” colouring contest. In a perfect twist of fate, it was also Ryan's birthday.
In 1993, the year of the 35th annual parade, temperatures hovered just above the freezing mark for most of the afternoon’s festivities. “This is the first Santa Claus Parade where it's nice,” said parade-goer Louise Tarini whose children were on one of the 60 floats. “Usually we're out here jumping around to keep warm,” she said recalling the sub-zero temperatures of previous parades.
The parade also attracted a bit of business for a few entrepreneurs, including longtime street merchant Dino's Popcorn and the Elm Street Bistro, which offered warm food to spectators. Crowd favourites during the 90-minute show were the horses and (again) Sudbury Theatre Centre's lively float of dancers, including some in animal costumes. But, with one word, five-year-old Samantha Lindsay had the last word on the true favourite: "Santa.”
The following year, 1994, saw sunshine and smiles as the longest Santa Claus parade snaked its way through the downtown. From its 12:30 p.m. start time, it took just under an hour for the 67 entries to make their way past any given spot.
A large contingent of tractor trailers added their own voice to the season’s sounds as Christmas music from floats mingled with the marching bands and laughing clowns creating a cacophonous mix of happiness.
The year's theme, a “Family Christmas”, was chosen to celebrate the International Year of the Family. And, all sorts of families appeared amongst the floats, including the Flintstones and the Rubbles, the Addams Family and even a space family dropped in via Science North.
To make things interesting, each entry was numbered from 67 to 1, creating a countdown to Santa's float, which allowed parents to cajole their tired youngsters that Christmas Elf Numero Uno was approaching fast, with the words "Santa's nearly here!"
Well, dear readers, it’s that time again. Come on, it’s lovely weather to share your memories of past Santa Claus parades. Did you have a favourite float? A favourite Santa (shhhh…we won’t tell the kids)? Were you ever a participant or just a spectator? Share your memories and/or photos by emailing them to Jason Marcon at [email protected] or the editor at [email protected].
Jason Marcon is a writer and history enthusiast in Greater Sudbury. He runs the Coniston Historical Group and the Sudbury Then and Now Facebook page. Memory Lane is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.