The 39th Annual Help Santa Toy Parade is set to take place Saturday, Nov. 22 in Centretown. The parade will start from city hall at 11 a.m., traveling the identical route to last year’s parade due to ongoing construction on Bank Street.
It will begin westbound on Laurier Avenue, turn south on O’Connor Street, west on Gladstone Avenue, turn south on Bank Street and finish at Lansdowne Park, a total distance of 3.6 kilometres from Laurier Avenue to its final destination at Lansdowne Park.
“We estimate approximately one hour per float from start to finish,” says Rob Collins, the parade’s chairperson. There are approximately 70 entries involved in this year’s parade, including floats, bands, dance groups and the highlight of the parade: Santa. With this estimate, if you were to stand in one spot and let each float pass by, the entire parade would take about an hour and 15 minutes.
“Typically, Santa will get to Lansdowne Park at 1:15,” says Collins.
Ainsley Shepherd, the special events coordinator for the City of Ottawa, warns that the city is planning to remove quite a bit of parking along the parade route to help facilitate the event.
Residents should be aware of the flowing street closures:
- Laurier Avenue between Nicholas and O’Connor will be closed at approximately 8:30 a.m. and will remain closed until the tail end of the parade turns onto O’Connor.
- Elgin Street between Slater and Lisgar will be closed from approximately 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. to accommodate spectators
- Second Avenue between Bank and Lyon will also be closed from approximately 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to accommodate a media crane and truck.
Laurier Avenue will also be used prior to the commencement of the parade as a staging area.
The parade, hosted by the Ottawa Professional Fire Fighters Association, in conjunction with the Salvation Army will also be collecting new or very gently-used toys along the parade route.