The Windsor Parade Corporation will have some new additions to the annual Santa Claus parades in Windsor, Amherstburg and Essex.
Officials have announced that added highlights, Fan Zones, a digital passport and an Art and Photography contest will be part of this year's parades.
Maggie Durocher, Executive Director, says at the end of 2021 they evaluated the parades and asked their sponsors for input and suggestions to update the parades, add more content that was exciting, and enhance the corporations’ current entries and provide more opportunities for sponsor engagement
Durocher says the parades themselves will have many new highlights including new bands and inflatable characters.
"They're about ten feet tall, so there's inflatable teddy bears, Olaf from Frozen, panda bears, polar bears and some great big inflatable puppets, and eight inflatable dancing reindeers," she says.
With most COVID-19 restrictions lifted at the Canada-U.S. border, Durocher says they have access to more bands this year.
"We're working to bring more bands in and some of our American bands back. We're just working to beef up the parades," she says.
Durocher says another new addition will be the digital passport and the FanZone.
"The place where we encourage people to come out early to the parade route to find out about the area that hosts the parade, to spend some time there. We'll have refreshments, activities, entertainment for them, heaters, tables chairs. It will just be a nice spot to come early," she says.
The Art and Photography contest is a new event that will be held from Nov. 26 to Dec. 10 in conjunction with the parades and invites artists and photographers to attend the parades and capture images that best portray this year’s theme, 'The Magic of Christmas.'
The event will wind up in late January with an Art/Photography show/sale where the winners will be announced.
The first parade is Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. in Amherstburg, followed by the Windsor parade on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m., and then Dec. 10 at 6:30 p.m. in Essex.
More information on all of the parades, the sponsors, how to get involved and application forms can be found at www.windsorparade.org.
Funding for this year’s updates was made possible by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport through the Reconnect 2022 program, Ontario Culture Attractions Fund and a host of local sponsors including Presenting sponsors The Town of Amherstburg, Wyandotte Town Centre BIA and The Essex BIA.