WATCH: A holiday tradition on Vancouver Island is about to put the festive spirit into overdrive this weekend. Ceilidh Millar reports.
It seems everyone is getting into the holiday season, including the team at Country Grocer.
“We just get a whole bunch of Christmas lights and go for it,” said float designer David Gray.
Country Grocer will showcase two floats as part of the 37th Annual Santa’s Light Parade on Saturday, November 24.
Gray has spent more than a month designing and building the float which includes hundreds of lights and a giant Ferris wheel.
“The kids are smiling and jumping up and down when they see it,” Gray explained. “It’s really neat.”
Government Street will come alive with the magic of Christmas on Saturday with lights, music, dancing and festive floats.
The parade is touted as Canada’s largest nighttime Christmas parade with more than 65,000 people expected to line the parade route.
CHEK News is proud to have been broadcasting the parade for more than 15 years.
“It’s a great launch to the Christmas season here in Victoria,” said director and producer Michael Woloshen with CHEK News. “It’s such a treasured event because it’s nighttime, it’s got the chill in the air and the Christmas lights illuminate the scene.”
There are 75 entries this year with more than 2,000 participants in the parade.
CHEK will be broadcasting the parade live from outside the Fairmont Empress.
“It’s a great view of the lawn and the inner harbour with the floats and the different entries coming down the street,” Woloshen explained. “It’s just going to look terrific.”
Volunteers from the Mustard Seed Food Bank will be on hand to collect donations of warm clothing, cash and non-perishable food items.
The parade starts at Government and Belleville streets and travels along Government to Chatham Street.
Stacy Ross, Jeff King and Ceilidh Millar will host the TV broadcast of the parade on CHEK News starting at 5:00 PM on Saturday.
A live stream of the parade will also be available online on the CHEK News Facebook page.
Ceilidh Millar
