BY ERIC DAROSA
Oakville celebrated its 70th Annual Santa Claus Parade this past Saturday.
Families and community members filled the streets of Downtown Oakville to experience walking floats, vendors and marching bands. The route began on Lakeshore Road E. and ended on Stewart Street.
Oakville resident, Sheila Rafizadeh says, “I love coming downtown with my sister for the Santa Claus parade because its fun to see what they do every year.”
Oakville Transit offered a free shuttle bus to the parade. People boarded at Oakville GO Station every five minutes from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Bill Hughes, then president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, organized the first parade in 1948. Since then, the parade has become a holiday tradition in the Town of Oakville. Various themes throughout the years have included a Canadian Christmas Through the Decades (2017), A Magical, Musical Christmas (2016) and Christmas in Motion (2015).
This year’s parade members included St. John Ambulance Therapy dogs, Humane Society, Oakville Hornets girl’s hockey team and of course Santa Claus.
