Christmas just got a whole lot merrier in Cramahe Township as two major holiday events will be held for the first time in two years.
The annual Colborne/Cramahe Santa Claus Parade will go ahead on Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. after initially being cancelled this year. As well, the sixth annual Castleton Santa Claus Pet Parade will be back on Sunday, Dec. 5 at 2 p.m. after a two-year absence.
Tracey Loveless, co-organizer of the Colborne/Cramahe parade with Nancy Heighton, said it’s a huge relief to go ahead with the parade after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions meant its cancellation in 2020. She posted the good news to the parade’s Facebook site and had an overwhelmingly positive response.
“I’ve had more than 130 responses,” said Loveless of the Facebook post. “People are happy. People want to get back to normal and do normal things. I’m happy we’re going ahead with it and hopefully people can be excited. It starts the Christmas season. When the parade starts everyone starts getting into the feeling of Christmas. The (Colborne) businesses get their Christmas stuff going at that time, too. It’s exciting — just an exciting feeling in town.”
Loveless said she cancelled the parade after Thanksgiving, following suit with Cobourg that also cancelled its parade as the Province was still in Stage 3 of the reopening plan, which allowed only 100 people for outdoor gatherings. A virtual meeting, however, by stakeholders in Northumberland, with MPP David Piccini and the local public health unit last Monday paved the way for parades to go ahead.
“When I had to cancel it, personally I felt that I let people down, but unfortunately it was beyond me,” she said. “I would feel so bad if someone got sick if they came to the parade. You always have to worry about that kind of stuff. I think now people are more aware. They wear their masks. And I hope parents would be more protective of their kids because they’re not vaccinated.”
As the pandemic is still ongoing, Loveless — who’s organized the parade for the past 16 years — said common-sense practises will be in place for the parade, including masking, social distancing and staying within your own bubble along the parade route.
The 2021 parade theme will be ‘A Family Christmas’ and Loveless noted it’s a fitting theme as area families have been through so much during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Castleton Santa Claus Pet Parade was initially was going to be cancelled again this year, but will go ahead this year after the provincial announcement that removed capacity limits for such events as Santa Claus parades.
“We are fully a go. We wanted to wait for provincial news to come forth and it has and it all looks positive. We are going for sure,” said Ingrid Schumacher Anderson, an organizer of the Christmas pet parade in the village.”
Schumacher Anderson said the committee in charge of the pet parade will be posting registration information on its Facebook page in the coming days. Pets must be pre-registered.
As a general rule, dogs have ruled the parade with approximately 70 dogs taking part in the parade two years ago, said Schumacher Anderson. That doesn’t preclude other animals from taking part in the parade. There are generally some horse and riders in the parade as well as donkeys and at least one goat. Cats, she said, are generally not a good idea to put in the parade.
“People are welcome to get into the spirit with their four-legged farm friends or pets in whichever way they like. With, of course, the thought to ‘is your animals leadable in a parade?’. So, obviously, we don’t open the invitation to cats. Although if you’ve got a cat that you think is totally zen with 50 to 70 dogs walking alongside them then sure,” she said.
Although the parade committee can’t mandate everyone who attends the parade
be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Schumacher Anderson said she hopes parade-goers will use common sense when attending.
“We do recommend people are vaccinated, including their pets. Everyone should be up to date,” she said. “We will want families to stay together obviously and in the safety protocol arena to be somewhat distance from the family beside them, behind them or in front of them. With this parade, we find people generally observe that anyway.”