RoN Barbaro remembers that day in 1982 like it was yesterday. The Toronto Santa Claus Parade, one of the longest-running and most successful children''s parades in the world, was about to come to a screeching halt – the victim of a recession that forced sponsors Eaton’s to pull out.
Seventy-seven years after it was launched, the Eaton’s Santa Claus Parade would be no more.
Cancel the parade? Wasn’t Santa recession proof? For people of the city, the news came as a total shock and left then Metro Chairman Paul Godfrey in utter disbelief. How could anyone even consider such a thought? Was there a way to keep it going?
Godfrey called Ron Barbaro and George Cohon, well known business leaders with a record of getting things done. Barbaro and Cohon not only served on the boards of numerous multi-million dollar corporations, but were also very active members of the community. Barbaro was Chairman of the Toronto Zoo and George Cohon was Chairman of the Ontario Science Centre.
So it was with good reason that Metro Chairman Godfrey decided he could rely on them to help save the parade.
The pair were initially unsure. ”What do we know about running a parade?” Barbaro recalls asking Godfrey.
But Barbaro agreed. He and George Cohon – the man who brought McDonalds to Canada – met at a bar and over a glass of wine, they discussed how they were going to accomplish what seemed at the time an impossible undertaking.
They made calls to friends and colleagues that they hoped they could rely on for support, to form a Volunteer Board. On their list were people like Ray Biggart, Irv Ungerman, the late Peter Labbett , and noted film director Norman Jewison.
Barbaro and Cohon knew that if the parade was to be financially viable,
they had to solicit a minimum of 20 corporations at $25,000 a year to reach the funding required – with a minimum of a three year commitment.
Once they had ensured the financial viability of the event, they approached Eaton’s and made a deal to take over the warehouse where all the floats were designed and constructed.
In the second year, Barbaro created the Celebrity Clowns concept . Last year marked the 25th anniversary of the celebrity clowns. "They are a major contributor to the fun and excitement and financial stability
of the parade," explains Barbaro.
Both he and parade co-chair Cohon and fellow Parade Director Norman Jewison dress up in full celebrity clown costumes and walk the parade.
Now, people volunteer and contribute a $1,000 donation to be a clown. It includes the professionally created costume which is theirs to keep. The identity of the clowns is unknown to all but close family. Barbaro says that the biggest thrill of the parade is to walk “the five miles of smiles”.
The celebrity clowns are all high profile members of the community who get to lead the parade and act as goodwill ambassadors by greeting the crowd, giving out candy and shaking hands with spectators.
As a group, the clowns represent the largest single sponsor of the Santa Claus Parade, raising almost $200,000 annually to support the event. Celebrity clowns have come from as far as California to participate in the parade.
To make it more interesting, Barbaro offers the clowns a mini challenge:
the first 10 clowns to show up on the morning of the parade would be chosen to go into Sick Children’s Hospital to visit the kids there. Clowns actually show up at 5 in the morning to be among the first to have this honour.
Two years ago, Barbaro formed a Celebrity Clown Committee and they introduced Celebrity Clowns for kids. It requires a $500 donation and some of the adult clowns sign up with their kids. The parade not only gives children their first opportunity to volunteer, they get instant gratification through thousands of people waving back at them.
"The kids love it. It’s where the seeds of community involvement are planted," Barbaro says. "It’s truly a magical experience.”
A look inside the parade. The Santa Claus Parade needs a lot of elves to ensure everything runs as smoothly as a sled on snow. Barbaro says some 3,000 people are involved in the 5.7 km parade, of which 12 are full time employees.
The parade itself consists of 24 floats, 24 bands, and approximately 200 clowns. It takes a full year to prepare, so planning for the next year''s parade begins as soon as the current one is done.
Each year more and more people want to be involved with the parade so recruitment is never a problem. The only way this parade can stay alive is through community involvement.
Years ago, all the floats were brought down by tracker during the night to where the parade begins at Bloor and Christie. There were some challenges with this, so now they need to start moving the floats in at dawn. Barbaro''s son Richard, who is currently the president of the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association (CIBPA), has driven a tracker on many occasions. Ron’s daughter Catherine has been a celebrity clown for more than ten years.
The parade continues to get bigger and better with each passing year. Often, changes will be made to improve the experience for everyone. For example, in their second year, Barbaro realized that children at SickKids could not really enjoy the parade because it was going down the west side of University Avenue where it was difficult to view from the hospital. He, with the help of Toronto Police, requested a change to the east side of University so the children at SickKids Hospital could better view the parade.
How it all started. When the Toronto Santa Claus Parade was originally launched in 1905, it was a ‘one-man show’ – Santa himself.
The date was Saturday, December 2; the time 9:59 a.m.; the place, Toronto’s old Union Station. Outside, it was a chilly minus 11 degrees Celsius with moderate winds.
The crowd, mostly children who had been waiting patiently, broke into a cheer when the gentleman in the bright red tunic and trousers trimmed with white fur, black boots and leggings, long white beard and a pack over his back emerged from the doorway.
It was, unmistakably, Santa Claus. He was making his first official visit to Toronto, sponsored by Canada’s fastest growing department store
– The T. Eaton Co. Limited.
To the clamorous cries of the children out to greet him, he rode through downtown streets to Eaton’s on a checkered red and black packing
case on top of a truck pulled by a team of horses.
Year by year more floats were introduced and personnel added
until it became one of the largest productions of its kind in North America. Predating the first Macy''s parade in New York City by almost 20 years the Santa Claus Parade would go on to survive the Great Depression, two World Wars and all manner of inclement weather.
The parades from 1910 to 1912 were the longest both in distance travelled and duration. Starting in Newmarket north of Toronto on Friday afternoon, it stopped overnight at York Mills and proceeded down Yonge Street on Saturday afternoon. It was a long ride for Santa, sitting on candy canes… and squeezed into the chimney of a log cabin with only an oil stove to keep him from freezing.
One year all the children on the streets participated. Copies of a song about Santa Claus were distributed along the route together with colourful pennants. Periodically, the parade would stop and, accompanied by a band, the children would gather around and sing.
They also tossed letters for Santa into a large net basket attached to a long pole carried by a bearer. Thousands of letters were collected and, if there was an address, each one was answered.
By the early 20''s the parade had grown to seven floats that assembled at the Eaton warehouse near Lansdowne Avenue. The floats were stored there throughout the year and each year the floats were updated and often new ones were added to the ''fleet''.
Familiar stories and popular characters were always called upon for the floats. There was Cinderella in her Pumpkin Coach, the Old Woman in the Shoe, Miss Muffet in her Tuffet, Little Boy Blue, Little Bo Peep, Mother Goose and Little Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan, Jack and the Beanstalk… each telling a tale of fantasy.
As use of gasoline engines became more widespread, Santa Claus sometimes switched to more modern means of transportation. Throughout the 20s and early 30s he arrived aboard motorized floats of various kinds. In 1925, he was the engineer of his own steam locomotive, the Santa Claus Express.
Although the majority of floats continued to be identified with the best-known nursery rhymes and fairy tales, as time went on, popular comic strip characters of the day also began to play a part in the parade.
Felix the Cat was one of the first contemporary children''s characters to take part, but over the years popular characters like Bugs Bunny, Popeye, and characters from Sesame Street also got into the act.
Over the early years of the parade Santa had used every conceivable mode of transportation. But in 1930 he ‘came to town’ on a more conventional style of float – a sleigh and eight reindeer leaping over the housetops. By 1935 this had become his trademark and that''s how he''s travelled ever since.
By the early 1960s the parade had grown so much that when it came time for the final preparations a staff of over 100 store employees was necessary. This included carpenters, artists, costumers, drivers, painters and executives.
The parade was over a kilometre and a half in length and travelled about 10 kilometres along the route. It took about one and a half hours from start to finish and about thirty-five minutes to pass any one point.
A Christmas lesson. Ron Barbaro and George Cohon’s enthusiasm, passion and dedication is all that one would associate with such an event that is close and dear to the hearts of young and young-at-heart. Anyone who takes over in the future will have big clown shoes to fill.
When asked what the parade has meant to him, Barbaro replied:
“The Christmas spirit.”
Then he quickly jumped to his feet to grab a plush toy Santa and squeezing Santa’s hand said, "Here, listen.”
The Santa toy said: “The magic of Christmas lies in your heart.”
Barbaro personifies the magic that only this season can bring: the spirit that lies in the hearts of people who are willing to make a difference. We all possess an indomitable spirit but not all of us have the determination to use it. Ron Barbaro is an example for all of us.
