Guelph Santa Claus Parade Canceled for Second Year in a Row – Guelph | The Canadian News

The Downtown Guelph Business Association says its annual Santa Claus parade was canceled for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organizer of the parade, Sam Jewell, said there are many factors that contributed to the decision.

“Unlike other outdoor events that take place in easily enclosed spaces, there are multiple access points to a parade that make it impossible to handle social distancing and crowd capacity,” he said in a statement.

“The community groups that we trust to make the floats are not congregating in the same way, and with less than two months until our traditional parade day, it is time to look for an alternative.”

That alternative is what they did last year, when Santa moved to the Sparkles in the Park event in Riverside Park.

In previous years, people walked through the park to see the various light displays. But due to the pandemic, it switched to a drive-thru format last December with Santa sitting inside a giant snow globe.

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Jewell said having Santa pass a car turned out to be very popular.

“It was magical,” he said. “People were able to see Santa as he sat and waved from the safety of his snow globe surrounded by beautiful lighting and we are grateful to the Sparkles organizers for including him.”

Sparkles in the Park dates will be announced later in the year.