Shorter Santa Claus parade planned this year for Sudbury

Parents might be relieved to find out that the annual Santa Claus Parade, which has rolled through downtown Sudbury for 60 years, will be taking a shorter route this year.

Maureen Luoma, one of the people who help organize the parade, told CBC News that the decision to shorten the parade was made after receiving "a lot" of feedback from parents.

"[They] have indicated while the parade, and the whole day of activities is wonderful, it ends up being a little bit long for families with little people," Luoma said.

"It's usually cold by the time the sun goes down."

The festivities will begin with a "Santa Watch" at 2:00 p.m. in the downtown TD Bank parking lot on Durham Street, and fireworks at 5:20 will signal the beginning of the parade. Approximately 50 floats are expected to make their way through the downtown this year, a number down a bit from last year, but nothing that concerns the organizers, Luoma said.

As for the route itself, people will find it about half the distance, in kilometres, as previous years.

"We have shorter route, but it still covers many of the familiar streets," Luoma said. "It will still marshall on Notre Dame, where it generally does."

"With the longer route, there were longer areas where crowds were sporadic," she said. "It will certainly be tighter, but I don't think it will be uncomfortable."

Luoma said the shorter route will also allow police to manage traffic more efficiently.

"Police manage traffic control at all the intersections. It allows for fewer streets having to be closed, and thereby causing further challenges for traffic," Luoma said. "For example, coming through Paris and Notre Dame, you used to encounter a number of delays with the older route."

Luoma said the organizers are always open to feedback from the public, and expect the new route to generate some comments.

"We're asking for people's patience, see how it goes this year. If we have to tweak it next year, we'll sit with police and we'll do that."

Most communities in the northeast are also hosting their Santa Claus parade this weekend. Sault Ste. Marie and Timminswill see the jolly old elf on Saturday night, while he visits North Bay Sunday afternoon.