Monday December 5, 2022 | SOOKE, BC
Notes & photos by Tom Myrick for Island Social Trends
Last night under a clear sky, the Sooke community celebrated the holiday season with their annual Sooke Santa Parade. Crisp near-zero temperatures made it a nippy night.
The turnout was surprisingly large for a small town, which is a testament to the Sooke community spirit.
They were catching up from not holding the parade during the pandemic over the past two years.
Starting along Sooke Road (Highway 14) at 5 pm, about 60 floats or participant groups comprised the festive parade.
Marching bands, dogs, politicians, dancers, brightly decorated vehicles and scooters, creative floats, giant snowmen, giant Santas, and of course the big guy himself made their way through the main stretch of downtown Sooke (from Sooke Elementary School, past Charters Road, past Evergreen Shopping Centre, to Townsend Road).
There were candy canes galore for the spectators, and everyone young and old appeared to be having a good time. At the mall there was complimentary hot chocolate, hot dogs and cookies.
Highlights included Ayre Manor residents with their decorated scooters, the dog parade (including some two-legged ones) from Bosely’s pet store, a rescue boat from Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, and of course Santa Claus.
The Sooke Lions also acknowledge help from Sooke District Lioness Lions & Sooke Harbourside Lions.
Traffic detour:
Ahead of the parade, the District of Sooke advised of a two-hour traffic detour for Highway 14 traffic (Charters Road > Throup Rd > Church Rd > Wadams Way > Otter Point Rd).
Positive spirit:
While there have already been Christmas fairs and other gatherings in Sooke this holiday season, the parade is a highlight that adorns the Christmas season in Sooke with some happy memories and positive spirit.
===== RELATED:
Sooke Santa Parade coming up Dec 4 (December 3, 2022)
Xmas dinner bird supply (December 3, 2022)
Fresh-cut Xmas trees as popular as ever (December 2, 2022)
Sooke firefighters in the holiday season: Santa Run & donations (November 24, 2022)
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends posts socioeconomic news insights at islandsocialtrends.ca and offers both a Free ENews and a Premium Subscription to keen news readers.
The editor of Island Social Trends is Mary P Brooke who began writing about the Sooke region 15 years ago with her first local news publication MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), then the weekly Sooke Voice News (2011-2013). That series then morphed into the weekly colour print/PDF West Shore Voice News (2014-2020).
Island Social Trends emerged from that, entirely online, in mid-2020.
