London children will be beaming ear-to-ear Saturday as Santa Claus makes his return to the city.
The 66th annual Santa Claus Parade is slated to roll through downtown starting at 6 p.m. This year's theme is a musical Christmas.
"There are going to be over 30 floats, five bands, lamas, and fire trucks. You name it, we pretty much have it this year," said Parade Executive Director Shaun Merton.
Among the bands set to perform is the Tian Guo Marching Band from Toronto, the Shelly Rastin Band, the Golden Harps Steel Orchestra, and Bobnoxious.
Floats and performers will line up along Egerton Street at Dundas Street. The parade will head west on Dundas through the east-end and downtown before coming to a close at Dundas and Ridout streets. It should last a total of an hour and 15 minutes from any given point along the route.
"If you want to track it, you can go on our website on our live stream it will show a tracker on Google where the parade is currently at," noted Merton. "So you can see in real time where it is and how long it will take before it gets to you."
People coming to the parade are asked to bring non-perishable food items for the London Food Bank and toonies for the annual Toonie Toss. Money raised through the toss is used to help cover some of the costs of the parade, which Merton said have jumped significantly over the past couple of years.
"This has been a tough year for donations... our costs have skyrocketed with the cost of insurance and policing. We are six independent people who put this together. We are not a business," said Merton.
He is hoping people, along with businesses and organizations will chip in to help supplement the non-profit event's shoestring budget by making a donation through the parade website.
Planning for this year's parade began shortly after last year's festivities and while it is a lot of work for the small group of volunteers, Merton said they couldn't imagine not putting on the highly anticipated annual event.
"There are always days where things go sideways and you have a bunch of things to fix, but when you get down on the parade route and see those kids smiling faces it is worth all the work every time," said Merton.
