Huge Crowds For Weekend Christmas Start
By John Swartz
This past weekend was all about Christmas. Friday was the annual Downtown Orillia Candlelight Parade. Several hundred people gathered at Mississaga and west Streets for the event, and were joined by several hundred more that walked the parade up Mississaga Street.
It was easily the largest crowd, certainly since the pandemic, maybe in a couple decades, to join Mayor Don McIsaac for the countdown to turn on the lights.
The block of Mississaga next to the Opera House was closed for special Farmers’ Market Christmas Market and Creative Nomad Studios had two full floors of vendors for their Christmas Market.
Saturday night the annual Orillia District Chamber of Commerce held the annual Santa Claus Parade. The parade took a little more than an hour to pass by and featured many floats decorated with lights. The crowd in the downtown looked to be bigger than two years ago when crowds were the largest witnessed (it rained last year).
Unfortunately for the first time in 30 years this writer has recorded the parade the camera malfunctioned after half the parade passed. It’s too bad because many of the most lit up floats were in the second half of the parade. There was a bit of luck as the camera came back to life just in time to catch Santa going by at the end of the parade.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied)
