Calgary needs a Santa Claus parade

The season of giving slowly creeps it’s festive cheer around the city. The streets and malls don the signature red and green that comes with the season of the Yuletide. Bells are being rung, Christmas music being played, and the glass stars are being placed on top of overly decorated conifers to light up the night with a jolly Noël. Calgary slowly dresses herself in her annual Christmas garb. Yet something lacks from this Prairie city from truly celebrating the holiday season. Something being denied from our streets to draw all our excitement for the holidays to commence. The Santa Claus Parade.

Yes the Santa Claus Parade, the one day where old man himself, takes time off from listening to the desperate pleas and selfish desires of children in malls. It’s a day where Santa spends a couple of hours sitting on a float, bringing joy and wonder to the parade well wishers. This annual festival has become a rite of passage for many North American cities. From New York to Vancouver, this parade has become a staple for many.  It’s a celebration that officially signifies the return of Santa Claus to usher in the new Christmas season.

It somewhat saddens many Calgarians that every major Canadian city hosts a Santa Claus Parade–except Calgary. Personally, it brings me envy to watch Toronto’s Santa Claus Parade grace the street of Yonge and Dundas. As I watch all the glee and excitement on my television of all the jolly festive cheer taking place on Torontonian streets, my heart slowly dies in the inside from Christmas envy.

Last time I believe Calgary had a Santa Claus parade was back in 2006. A time where cell phones were used for phone calls and the Blackberry ruled the world. After seven years of silence, no further developments to the future revival of this festivity to celebrate the jolly old fat man in red. The planning of such an event requires a year in advance. The committees for Montreal, New York, and Toronto’s Santa Claus parades are enormous and take up months in planning for everything to be perfect.

The Santa Claus parade brought back memories for me as the signalling of the holiday season. It was a time when bells ran through the streets and elves danced in red and green tights. It was a magical and wondrous event through the eyes of my four year old self. There was a certain mysticism surrounding Santa Claus during the parade, being the main attraction upon his grand vessel of a float. It instilled a Christmas spirit inside me to this day. Now all Calgarian children have to look for is to see a simple mall Santa dressed in basic Christmas garb. Nothing instils a Christmas spirit in a young child’s life than a nappy display of Santa’s Northern Workshop and a Christmas Mall Elf who looks far too old and big to be an eccentric, magical creature.

The Santa Claus Parade is a magical event that has become traditions for many families. To be honest, besides Pride and the Stampede Parade, Calgary clearly lacks in the parade department. Calgary isn’t what most would consider a very festive city. Besides a week of Stampede extravaganza, no elaborate or festive event truly graces the streets of Calgary. That is why Calgary needs the Santa Claus Parade back.

As citizens of this great Prairie city, are we just going to stand idle as the rest of nation continues to have their Santa Claus festivities take place in their respective municipalities. If this does not anger you enough Calgary, Edmonton and Airdrie have their own Santa Claus Parades. Oh heck, even an unknown Albertan municipality of Olds hosts their own Santa Claus parade. This is a disgrace Calgary. We deserve to be on the same level with the likes of Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto. We need a Santa Claus parade not just for the festiveness of it, but also to say to these major Canadian cities that we have one. No longer shall we Calgarians allow this city to deny us of our festive cheer.

I dream of a day where we no longer have to face this tyranny against the holiday season. I have a dream, where a Santa Claus parade will once again return to its former glory, and grace the streets of this magnificent city. The reindeer will return, the bells will once again ring with thrill, Santa Claus will rise again.