Etobicoke Lakeshore Santa Claus Parade

 

 

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  Dwight Ave. & Lakeshore Blvd. West
Date:  December 2023
Website:  lakeshoreparade.ca

  Toronto is known for its Santa Claus Parade that passes through the downtown core. Since 1991, there has also been a second Santa Claus Parade taking place along Lakeshore Blvd. West. We went to check out this smaller, more community driven, parade in 2023. Here are some highlights.

    A couple of Looney Tunes favourites arrived in a big, old-time car. They were pulled by some sort of racing truck. Normally these two characters would not get along, but after all it is Christmas.

    Thomas The Tank Engine arrived pulling train cars full of gifts. 

 

    A group of snowmen were headed down a snow covered hill. One was on skiis, one on a sled and one just slid on his snowy belly.

 

 

   An inflated gingerbread man walked carefully down the street.

 

    Throughout the parade were many children dressed as woodland creatures.  This bunny (above) was most likely trying to catch up to Bugs Bunny and give him a giant carrot.

     The Grinch tried to steal this parade float.  Sorry Grinch, you can't stop Christmas from coming.

 

    Next Snow White and Prince Charming drove by with a cottage full of dwarves.

    Three polar bears raced by in a three man bobsled.

 

    A drumming group went by. Marching bands are a very important part of any good parade.

    Another must have for any successful parade is at least one bagpiper.

 

    There was an old fire truck that had retired from active duty.

 

    There was also a shiny, new fire truck flashing its lights and blasting its siren to let us know that it was ready to be called into action.

 

    Speaking of old vehicles, here is one from the Stone Age. Fred Flintstone and Dino were driving this prehistoric car down the street.

     From dinosaurs to dragons. This fire-breather was wearing a scarf so that his throat would not get too cold.

   Who do you send to defend your castle from a fire breathing dragon? Why a brave knight, of course!  This knight saw us, dropped his visor and turned to face us. Merry Christmas Mr. Knight.

   

 Mr. Peanut took some time out from his very busy schedule (It's nuts!) to walk in the parade. There were also some dancing Chinese dragons delighting the crowd with their moves.

 

    A pirate ship sailed past. A loud pop was followed by a plume of smoke. We had just been fired upon! 

 

     Next up was a Mariachi band looking sharp in their outfits. They were all piled into the back of a U-Haul trailer. Feliz Navidad !!

    Standing in the back of a pickup were a couple of singing Elvises. How could anyone have a blue Christmas with these guys rocking around the Christmas tree?

    Woof, woof, woof ! Woof, woof, woof! Jingle Bells as only a pack of dogs can perform it.

 

 

    Mrs. Claus arrived in a sleigh pulled by a single reindeer. That can only mean that Santa is on his way.

 

   Here comes Santa Claus. Here comes Santa Claus. Right down Lakeshore Blvd. We had a great time.  Everyone in the community came together to put on a wonderful parade.

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Map of Our World
Etobicoke Lakeshore Santa Claus Parade

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Post # 341

Winterfest

Location: Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Address: 9580 Jane Street
Date: Dec 2019
Website: www.canadaswonderland.com

  Canada's Wonderland amusement park started out as the summer place to go for rides and thrills.  When the kids went back to school in the fall, the season ended.  Next they started operating later and later in order to stay open with reduced hours up until Halloween.  In 2018 they realized, "Why is the park closed during the most wonderful time of the year?", and Winterfest was born.  Now being in Canada in the winter means it is too cold and snowy for most of the rides to operate, but that didn't stop them from turning the park into a winter Wonderland.

  The centrepiece of the park is Wonder Mountain.  In the summer it has flowing waterfalls and cliff divers.  In the winter a cascade of twinkling lights flows down the mountain. Everything was the same but with a wintery twist.

  A must have treat when visiting Wonderland is the funnel cakes.  You can't go wrong with some deep fried batter topped with strawberries and ice cream.  Festive funnel cakes let you enjoy new flavours like Eggnog Gingerbread and Candy Cane.

  We entered Medieval Fare which was temporarily being called Elf Village.

  One of the many shows was called Tinker's Toy Factory.  It was good to get inside the theatre and watch a show as well as for a chance to warm up.

   Another way to keep warm was with unlimited hot chocolate refills in our Winterfest mug.  All you had to do was line up at one of the many stations across the park and get your mug topped up again and again.

   Every section of the park was decorated and covered in lights and Christmas delights.  We walked down Candy Cane Lane where Snoopy and Woodstock rode their sled across a rainbow.

  We came across a line-up going into a group of Christmas trees.  We couldn't see through the trees to see what was going on.  We decided to join the line and find out what awaited us at the end.

  It turned out that this was Charlie Brown's Tree Lot and everyone was lined up to have their picture taken with Peppermint Patty and a thin little tree with only one ornament.  As we know, that little tree is full of Christmas spirit.

There were also giant Christmas trees filled with lights.

Just about every tree in the park was draped in glowing bulbs.  It really was an impressive display.

We wouldn't even dare to count how many lights might have been used to light up the park.  We would say for Wonderland to expect an oversized electric bill, nuch like these oversized lights.

 We started getting hungry again so what better to eat than some Christmas Veggie Poutine.

Around the park were many Christmas characters.  There were elves and reindeer and even elves on reindeer.  There were also some penguins dressed for the cold.

There were men made of both snow and gingerbread.

   There was a giant present made of lights.

 

 

Even the games were themed for Christmas.  The Milk Can game was renamed the Snowball Toss.  If you won you might go home with your very own bouncing Abominable Snowmonster from the Rudolph Christmas classic. 

  If you didn't win a prize, you could still go home with some Christmas decorations from the shops.  We liked the Fa La La La Llama ornament.

  As we headed out of the park we thought we heard a clatter.  Was it the hooves of reindeer landing on a roof?  Maybe it was the clickety clank of people being pulled to the top of a roller coaster?  Either way Wonderland had provided us with some thrills for yet another season.

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Map of Our World
Canada's Wonderland

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Post # 294

Bay Christmas Window Robots

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 176 Yonge Street.
Date: Nov 2019
Website: www.hbcheritage.ca

  Every year Torontonians look forward to the unveiling of The Bay's Christmas windows on Queen Street.   For many years you could see a glimpse into Santa's workshop.  In 2016 the forest creatures took over.  This year marked the beginning of the rise of the machines.  As we do every year we went downtown to see what was being displayed.

  The first window showed a group of cute snowmen making snow angels.  As the snowmen waved about in a bed of snow, behind them we can see machinery leading to Santa's factory.

  The next window showed a robot arm filling boxes with candy canes as they pass by on a conveyor belt.

  A toy soldier stood guard between the windows.  We moved past him to see what the next window had to offer.

  The next window had several robotic arms filling boxes with teddy bears and other toys.  Some of the boxed animals looked like part of the enchanted forest display from last year.  We hope they were off to be loved by some children.  One of the robots was giving a high five up against the window.  A child pushed the high five button and the robot turned and then stopped.  Ahh machinery!  Looks like time for a reboot.

  The next window had ornaments either being built or transported.  There were ornaments going every which way.  A giant hand (see photo at top of post) had grabbed one of the ornaments between its fingers.

  The last window featured a computer that was scrolling through names.  Even Santa has embraced technology to get things done faster.  The computer appeared to be checking who was naughty and who was nice.

  By the look on its face we think the computer found a naughty one!

 

  For those of you who prefer your Christmas a little more warm and fuzzy, don't worry.  Just inside The Bay store we found a plaid bear and a plaid moose trying to blend in with the mannequins.

  Around the corner of Yonge & Queen, Saks also had Christmas windows.  We found a few bunnies hiding in the snow.

  We also saw what looked like either a weird little polar bear or a very plump ermine.   While technology tries to take over Christmas, we are glad we found a few of nature's creatures to fill us with some Christmas joy.

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This location is near Queen subway. Visit other Toronto TTC stations.
 
Map of Our World
Christmas Windows At The Bay

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Post # 271