London, Ont. 65th Annual Santa Claus Parade sees large turnout

London, Ont. -

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the 2020 parade was reworked to be at the airport with Londoners driving around the floats in a controlled and safe manner.

But that was not the case for Saturday evenings celebrations, which saw Dundas streets' sidewalks filled with happy families like it used to.

Executive Director of the London Santa Claus Parade, Shaun Merton, said there is more excitement for this year’s parade because it has been a couple years since London was able to celebrate in its typical fashion

"All the kids are excited, they scream and yell and they’re going to get candy and those types of things are big things for the parade," said Merton.

Roughly 25 floats were a part of this year’s festivities, as well as dancers, musicians and even llamas.

Spectators were asked to bring a non-perishable food donation for the London food bank which was collected during the parade.

This year, the drive was named the "Bill Paul Memorial Food Drive" to honour London’s late town crier, who used to lead the Santa Claus parade every year for decades.

"He just enjoyed it so much and my hope, and I think the hope of the food bank, is that this will increase the amount of food collected this year," said a close friend, Don McLeod.

As always, the parade ended with an appearance from Santa Claus waving to all the Londoners who have made the "nice list".

The next opportunities to see the man in red will be when he makes his appearance at the Hyde Park parade on Nov. 27 and at the Argyle Parade Dec 4.