Sure, the Christmas tree has German roots, Hallmark created the first holiday card, and Coca-Cola may have had a hand in promoting a certain jolly old man, but Canadians have contributed to Christmas history, too.
We Held the First Santa Claus Parade
First held in 1905, and started by the Eaton’s department store, who transported Santa on a float from Union Station to the Eaton’s store on Bloor Street, the Toronto Santa Parade is now one of the largest parade productions in North America and the oldest annual Santa Claus parade in the world. Its route is almost 5.6 kilometers long and boasts 1,700 participants. Due to Covid-19, in 2020, the in-person parade was canceled, although a broadcast-only version of the parade was filmed at Canada’s Wonderland. The 2021 edition will also be broadcast-only.
Santa has his own Postal Code
If you want to get a letter to Santa Claus, you’ll need to address it to the North Pole, making sure to use the postal code H0H 0H0 (no postage required.) To receive a response from Santa, mail your letters no later than December 10, 2021. Be sure to include your return address: although Santa knows where you live, his postal elves need the information to deliver your letter. Canada Post’s volunteer elves have responded to over 26 million letters in 25 years in over 35 languages, including Braille.
Rudolph Was Canadian
One of the longest-running Christmas specials, the “animagic” Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has a surprising Canadian connection. First airing in December 1964, Rankin-Bass, an American production company, created this beloved Christmas program; however, all of the voice talent, including voiceover actors and singers, was Canadian (except for Sam the Snowman, who was famously voiced by Burl Ives.)
We’ve got Michael Bublé
Bing Crosby and Perry Como may have been the gold standard of Christmas crooners of old, but Michael Buble is the new smooth voice of the holidays. His album “Christmas” was first released in 2011, topped the chart that year and has returned to the top 10 in every holiday season thereafter. It ranks number 2 on the US Top Holiday Albums (Billboard) of all time.
Michael’s rendition of It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas – first made famous by Perry Como – was Spotify’s fourth most-streamed Christmas song as of December 2020.
We grow a lot of Christmas Trees
Did you know Canada was home to 1,872 Christmas tree farms in 2016? The 2016 Census of Agriculture lists the majority of these as being in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and British Columbia. Our trees are popular around the world: in 2017, Canada exported over 2.2 million Christmas trees to over 20 countries, including the United States, Barbados, France, Jamaica and Thailand.
Leave a Reply