London Santa Parade 2010

A couple weeks ago John and I went to the Santa Parade, a tradition in London and other Ontario towns that starts off the holiday season. I've wondered what sort of officially starts Christmas in Canada, since Thanksgiving is before Halloween. Some people say Remembrance Day, others say American Thanksgiving, others say December 1st. But quite a few people told me that it was the Santa Parade.



We clapped for these guys for real, after last year when our apartment almost set on fire.












It had your typical small town parade stuff: local fire department, radio stations, and London Dance Extreme had floats or groups in the parade.








I think this should have won "Most Entertaining."











They had a pretty cool train...





















and the Ghostmobile! Decked out for Christmas, of course.



















They had a local high school drum line and a couple other marching bands.







Note the lights around their rims.












After a half hour or so we felt like maybe we'd seen enough. But then the Big Guy in Red showed up.



















As I said on Facebook, I guess Santa makes a pre-Christmas swing through Ontario, maybe to help us remember that it's almost Christmas.



















There's John screaming, "SANTA! LOOK AT ME, SANTA! LOOK AT ME!!!!"


Here's a group photo of everyone who we went with to the parade. They're all friends of John's (and friends of theirs) from his women's studies class. Afterward we went back to the house of the girl who took the picture and watched Home Alone 2.



















This is probably the first Christmas post of many. Yay for Christmas!