The second annual Cochrane Santa Claus Parade is getting ready to dazzle young and old parade goers with a variety of floats.

Spencer Seabrook, Chair of the Cochrane Santa Claus Parade, says they are excited about what this year's parade has to offer but is keeping the number of floats a surprise.

"We try to make that a secret for the parade day itself. I can tell you we do have more floats than last year. We have some new entries, and we have some entries that have come back, and they told us they are working hard to make bigger and better more eloquent entries. And of course, Santa's entry is well underway and it has a whole new theme."

Seabrook says the event was well received last year with 15,000 people in attendance and they look forward to doing it again this year.

The one new thing for the parade is a change of route.

"We initially did want to keep it on Historical Downtown, unfortunately this year the old staging route has since been redeveloped. So it didn't allow us a safe and effective area to coordinate our form up for the amount of parade entries we were anticipating this year. So we decided maybe the south of the tracks would be good for us."

Seabrook says the route change will also allow new businesses to get involved.

"It's going to bring new opportunity for the parade and it's going to be able to allow other businesses in other parts of downtown Cochrane to get involved in it."

After the parade, Santa will make his way to various residential areas around Cochrane during the week of Dec 14th to 18th as he stops in to visit children in their community.

"We bring Santa's float and truck through all the different communities in Cochrane. This year we are excited that we are going to have members of the Cochrane Glee Club come along with us to sing Christmas carols, we have a bunch goodies to hand out, and we also have a neat contest this year where people can go on our website and it's like a secret Santa.

"Parents that are interested in getting some gifts together for their children can drop that off to us ahead of time and enter our contest, and if they are drawn at random we are going to be delivering those presents from Santa."

Seabrook says the parade committees mandate is all about one thing - community.

"It is all about the kids and families, and bringing everyone together for the holidays."

If you would like more information on this year's Cochrane Santa Claus Parade you will find it here.

Marni Fedeyko - airdrienews@goldenwestradio.com