Santa Claus Parade Endures

Photo: December 1992 - 1st Tavistock Beavers dressed as reindeer and pulling Santa's sleigh are, left to right: kneeling - Daniel Ferguson, Jeremy Quehl, Steven Meekes; standing - Mark Brooks, Mark Halliday, Travis Blum, and Adrian Loree. (Photo courtesy of the Tavistock Gazette)

By Mary Nicklas

WE HAVE RECENTLY enjoyed watching the annual Santa Claus Parade. Christmas parties with packs for up to 700 youngsters have been held annually since 1938. The Tavistock Men's Club and Board of Trade (later renamed the Tavistock Men's Club) has sponsored the event every year.  The parade has grown over the years and has featured floats from organizations, commercial establishments and families as well as  musical accompaniment by local groups, Tavistock Citizens Band, New Hamburg Concert Band, North Easthope Pipe Band and the Hickson Central School Band.

During WW 2 money was collected for the British Children’s Fund to help thousands of children in England who were without a home and parents and would not have the happy Christmas Canadians enjoyed. Santa is always the main attraction at the parade, giving out candy bags to all the children. At the 1950 visit of  Santa  both the Opera Hall and the Library Hall were jammed for the visit and at both Halls comedy motion pictures were shown, with Walter Schaefer and Carl Seltzer as the projectionists. The Men’s Club sold tickets on turkeys to raise the money to provide candy for the children.  When those locations were no longer available or deemed too small, Santa met with the children in the old arena and later the Memorial Hall.  That changed to the outdoor venue we have today.

The Santa Claus parade in 1983 featured twenty-three entries. The Tavistock Citizens Band along with the Wilmot Twirlers led the parade with the North Easthope Pipe Band participating. Other floats included Bonnie Brae Nursing Home, Baby Band, Four Thumbs, Tavistock Cheese Co., Mohr's Home Hardware, Sommers Motor Generator Sales, Stedman's Store, Township of East Zorra-Tavistock, Tavistock Braves, Tavistock Brownies, Tavistock Fire Department, Doug Wiffen Family, Penny Jensen Family, People CareCentre, Len Johnson Family, Hostess Munchies and, of course, Santa Claus.  His sleigh pulled into the parking lot beside Mohr's Hardware and the people flocked to the site where Santa and his helpers handed out candy canes and goodies to 500 children. 

Each year we look forward to our parade and hope they last for many more years to come.

Acknowledgements: Tavistock Gazette and Fact & Fantasy.