2008 & 2011 Gem Award Winners for Culture
THE LAKESHORE
VILLAGES Volum e 0 8 • I ssue 0 5 • Wi nt e r 2 0 1 5
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Float Santa Claus 91 circa. 19
Here comes Santa Claus …right down Lake Shore Blvd. Santa Claus arrives on the Lakeshore on Saturday, December 5th, for his Christmas parade. This will be the 25th time the jolly old elf has stopped in for the Etobicoke Lakeshore Santa Claus Parade. He says it is one of his very favourite parades! Since 1991 when it began with just a couple floats, community groups, Scouts, Guides, Sea Cadets, cheerleaders and baton twirlers thousands of people, have turned out to take part and welcome Santa to the Lakeshore. The idea of a Santa Claus parade on the Lakeshore was developed by the Lakeshore Village (New Toronto) and Long Branch Business Associations. Over the years, volunteers have built and decorated floats and have encouraged more and more groups to take part. The first few years, the floats consisted of borrowed 48ft flat-bed trailers and volunteers would work furiously around the clock to decorate them. Today, the parade has more that fifteen of its own floats and four of them are self-propelled. In 1995, volunteer and designer Arnold Hughes brought a third dimension to the floats by creating larger than life characters made from wires and fabric called fun fur. In 1996 the City of Etobicoke endorsed the parade as the official Christmas Parade of Etobicoke. Bruce Loveless and a group of volunteers built the Santa float, creating nine wire frame reindeer that move up and down. continued on page 05
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