Santa
Santa Claus Parade
Santa
 

I’m Louise, Andy’s recently emigrated little sister, now appointed Official MMMotors Canadian correspondent!.
It’s only mid November but already the weather here in Alberta’s verrrrrrrrry cold! Minus 27 today with a wind chill of minus 40 apparently!! It’s been snowing constantly for two days. I went out this afternoon and did my civic duty and dug all the snow off the drive and pathway - it's your responsibility to clear your section of pathway etc, otherwise you can be fined. I thought I would get out and do it myself before my hubby Paul got home from work, but I have to say it was absolutely freezing and I'm now aching quite a bit - might not do it again for a few days!!
We live in High River & our nearest city is Calgary. Every year they hold a Santa Claus Parade, which runs in a square from downtown Olympic Plaza, via 6th Street, and across to 8th Street before returning to it's start location. This is our first Canadian Christmas so we thought we’d go along & check it out.
The parade was quite impressive, with lots of cars and local advertising mixed in with the more traditional elves and teddy bears! There were a lot of marching bands, cheerleaders, dancers etc and quite a few pretty impressive floats. Paul was particularly keen on the stretched Hummer limo, which is now on his Christmas list! The last float was of course Father Christmas' sleigh (or rather Santa Claus, as he is known here!), and the parade in total took around an hour to pass by - doesn't really compare to our local British carnival with it's three floats!! The downtown area was packed for the day, which is quite unusual on a weekend and there were lots of activities going on to involve the kids in various stores around the city. We went to "The Bay" to meet the real Santa Claus who was really quite good!

-Lou