….on Dec. 6th, western Christian children celebrated St. Nicholas Day, New Toronto had its Santa Claus Parade and Ninth Street residents inflated and lit up their Santas

A week ago, Saturday, my husband and I were walking Frances over to the park when I noticed a very unusual sight on Ninth Street. Giant inflatable Santas popped up all the way down the street. Now it’s not unusual to see Christmas decorations this time of year and the inflatable variety are becoming more common but it seemed like every other house had a large inflatable Santa on their lawn.

On the way back from our walk we purposely  went down Ninth Street from the top of the street and I counted the Santas. There were 16 of them in one block that were all the same size and design. There were a few smaller ones in between and there was one lonely Frosty the Snowman.

Later that night I went back to Ninth Street to see the Santas lit up. I parked the car and saw two people on the street. I approached them and asked them if this display of all the same Santas was a coincidence or if it was an organized event. The latter was true. Apparently someone on the street went door to door and suggested that everyone put up one of these Santas. They were at Walmart and were on sale.

I asked if the person with the snowman didn’t get the message. It just so happened that one of the people there was the owner of the snowman and she protested very loudly. I calmed her down and concluded that Walmart must have sold out of Santas and that’s exactly what happened. A few more Santas have gone up since then.