The annual Santa Claus parade takes over Toronto but future events in doubt

The holiday spirit officially arrived in Toronto Sunday with the 120th Santa Claus parade taking over the downtown core as thousands turned out to see the iconic floats, marching bands and of course Santa Claus himself. But has the beloved tradition marched through the city streets for the last time?

Toronto’s Santa Claus parade is believed to be one of the largest parade productions in North America and the oldest Santa Claus parade in the world, running uninterrupted since 1905. But ahead of this year’s edition of the parade, organizers indicated the event’s future might be in doubt due to growing inflationary and operational costs.

“We’ve been very honest in the last week about our funding shortfall and how difficult it is. We’re a year-round endeavour to plan and organize and ultimately pay for this parade as a not-for-profit,” said parade CEO Clay Charters.

Charters said last weekend that corporate sponsors have traditionally provided the bulk of funding for the parade in previous years. However, due to corporate budget constraints and the growing costs associated with the operation and production of the event, they needed to raise $250,000 to fill the current deficit. As of Sunday, they were more than 55 per cent towards their goal with more than $136,000 raised through a gofundme campaign.

Mayor Olivia Chow says the city has committed money through its Special Events Stabilization Initiative (SESI) fund to keep the event going, calling the parade an essential part of Toronto’s history.

“If you think about even just the kind of magic and the economic benefits because people are going into the coffee shop, shopping and all of that.. so we hope that both from private donors and the federal government coming in, right now the city is in for $100,000, the province is in, we just need the feds to step up.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged his support last week, calling it a great tradition that they “want to keep it going for years to come.” However, the specifics of the federal government’s support have yet to be revealed.

This year’s parade featured 18 marching bands and 26 floats and with over 700,000 spectators in attendance, organizers are optimistic that the parade will be able to continue next year.