Jennifer Geens
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 18/05) - Yellowknife's first daytime Santa Claus parade in several years will follow a new route.

Elaine Porter was thrilled to meet The Man when he came calling last year. She'll have a warmer time of it this year when Santa Claus tops off the annual parade, but during the day on Saturday. - NNSL file photo

This year, floats and marchers will gather at the City Hall parking lot, then follow 53rd Street to Franklin Avenue The parade will make a left turn onto the main drag, then turn right onto 49th Street and finish up at Sir John Franklin high school.

The pertinent portions of these streets will be closed to car traffic from shortly before 11 a.m. until after the parade has passed.

Kids, parents and the young at heart can warm their chilly fingers and toes in one of the seven buses that will be stationed along the route.

This year's theme is "A Fairy Tale Christmas."

"Santa will be making an appearance as always," said Odessa Hewlko, of the Community Services department.

Ten floats are registered, though Hewlko said that every year a few unexpected floats turn up at the last minute.

Many of last year's top finishers won't be entering floats this year, leaving the field wide open.

Last year's winner in the commercial category, NorthwesTel, will be a contender. The telecommunications company's float co-ordinator Carol DiPasquale said it's not surprising that some organizations take a year off, because getting together a Santa Claus parade float is a lot of hard work.

"It's hard to come up with a new idea," she said. "It's time consuming. You're depending on your employees and volunteers, it can be a very busy time of year. It's a challenge to keep that momentum going for one event after another." She said NorthwesTel's float makers were disappointed the city decided to return to a daytime parade.

They enjoyed experimenting with lights and glow-in-the-dark paints to add extra sparkle, and they also enjoyed the extra time on Saturday to put the finishing touches on the float.

On the positive side, NorthwesTel employees broke their bagging record this year by filling 3,000 goodie bags in just one hour, 45 minutes.

"The goodie bags have kind of become our trademark," said DiPasquale.

Diavik, which finished third in the commercial category last year, is one business opting out of the parade. The diamond mining company instead has a top secret project under development for Saturday.