Cobourg Santa Parade 2009

Cobourg is the former capital of Ontario and is a city of about 30,000 if you add the surrounding area into the numbers. So by that count Cobourg’s population is about 1/100ths that of Toronto … so I was not expecting the 8 bands, 20 floats and impressive size of Cobourg’S Parade – almost as big as of the Toronto Santa  Parade. However, to my delight,  Cobourg’s citizens delivered a Santa Parade of great proportions and sheer fun on a brisk but sunny November Sunday.

It started with the large number of families and especially kids dressed up for Santa fun with hats, mitts, and scarves of various seasonal color and styling. The tykes above  were typical of the kids [and yes, their parents] that line up on King Street around 2:00PM for the start of the parade. The families kept themselves busy with candy and goodies raids on the nearby local stores – my favorite was the Cupcakes bakeshop on King Street West.

But in common with their Toronto counterparts, Cobourgians came equipped with blankets, small chairs, and even over-turned  cans to await the coming parade.  Many also brought a late lunch, cookies and other goodies  to munch on while waiting for the parade. But as noted they did not have long to wait. Chatting and visiting was the other order of the day.  But at last the parade started and soon eyes were bright with all the floats and promise of upcoming Christmas cheer.

what really surprised me was the number of kids on and about many of the floats. It appears that to be in the Santa Parade  is as big a deal as being a Parade watcher. And as you shall see below there were a lot of Candy capers going on.

Click on a thumbnail image to see the picture full size.
As can be seen there were a lot of surprises. A red boughed pulling a wagon, real reindeer, and a man on an old fashion brakeless, big wheel bike among other things.

For the elder folks,  the Parade provided  not just the chance to chat around, but also the fun of seeing a whole array of classic cars and trucks. Of course the Shriners had the visual pun of the two headed-car:

Again as you can see immediately below there were a number of classic old cars and trucks  on parade – Cobourg is no stranger to classy vehicles.

My personal favorite is the red-hatted Ford.

But what really impressed this viewer was the number and sound of the bands and several Scottish Pipe and Drum corps. One could hear in the distance bands already playing, drummers drumming, and the parade festivities in the distance well beyond Division Street [Cobourg’s equivalent of Yonge for dividing the city in half]. There were more than eight bands [too many to count on my fingers]. And their sounds were as varied as the Ulster Accordion Band, the Crossly High Band from Niagara on the Lake and the Toronto Signal Corps troupers could produce.

Now to this viewer a Parade is not a parade without a band – a single band makes a parade, many bands make for a great parade. Cobourg’s Santa Parade had plenty of high class bands.

And just before Santa, came the Cobourg band in its  impressive white pith hats and red tunics. They looked as good as they sounded and marched. And of course  they announced the arrival of Santa himself who, of course, got the biggest cheers from the crowd around.

Now what could be finer than a great weekend Christmas parade ? Well weather as nice as for this one.