Santa sleighs: St. Nick delights St. John's crowds out in force for parade

"Santa! Santa! Here he comes!"

Excited screams streamed down the sidewalks of downtown St. John's, as each child caught a glimpse of the man in red.

The children waited in the cold for more than an hour, with occasional flurries of light snow.

But when Santa arrived, he did not disappoint.

This year's Downtown St. John's Christmas Parade went ahead Sunday morning, after being delayed due to rainy, windy weather last weekend.

An estimated 45,000 people lined the sides of the roads from Duckworth on down to Springdale Street. They were treated to performances by bands and dancers, animated characters come to life and the always-popular Maple Leaf Big Stick.

Newfoundland Power took home the prize for best float more than 20 feet long, while Rovers Search and Rescue won the prize for less than 20 feet.

The latter featured a search and rescue member with giant binoculars, asking the crowd if they'd see an elf. Behind her, peeking out of a chimney, a sneaky elf waved to laughing kids.

The parade kicked off with members of Newfoundland Power and the Community Food Sharing Association going through the crowd and collecting food and money donations.

By the end of the parade, they had collected 16,000 pounds of food along with about $9,000 in loonies and toonies.

"It's a huge logistical event, with many moving pieces, including 100 entries, 5,000 participants and the work of 4,500 volunteers each year," said Gaylynne Lambert, special events and media relations manager for Downtown St. John's.

"We collect an amazing amount of food and an incredible amount of cash that goes towards the Community Food Sharing Association that they really need at this time of year."

Santa's sleigh gets an upgrade

Santa strolled into town with a brand new sleigh on Sunday, with help from corporate sponsor Stantec.

"[We decided to] take something a little traditional, a little modern and kind of mesh the two of them together," said Craig Adams, senior mechanical technologist with Stantec.

A small group of employees volunteered for the task of giving Santa a new ride and logged about 600 work hours, while the company kicked in $10,000 for building materials.

"We just felt that the one that they were currently using has been around now for a few years and it was time to provide something new and kinda of change it up … We're very pleased with the final product," Adams told CBC.

'Get back on board'

The amped-up sleigh was part of Stantec's commitment to the Downtown Development Corporation to try to boost the profile of the parade, Adams said.

"Over the last number of years the corporate involvement has decreased significantly at the parade," he said.

"So we wanted to throw the challenge out there to other corporations and say, 'Hey guys, get back on board. Let's start building some really nice floats and give the kids of this city and province something nicer to go down and have a look at.'"

The call to action is working, said Adams, as there will be 10 new floats in the parade this year compared with last year. 

Including, of course, the one carrying Santa.

"It's not your typical small little sleigh. It's quite a sleigh, and I think it's going to have some wow factor," said Adams.

Didn't make it to the parade? Check out our live blog below for updates from the CBC employees who were in the parade.