Toronto’s Santa Claus Parade to travel down Yonge St. due to ongoing downtown construction

Posted November 12, 2026 11:26 am.

The Original Santa Claus Parade will travel down Yonge Street this year, for the first time in over a decade, to accommodate ongoing construction in the downtown core.

The 122nd edition of the parade is being held on Sunday, Nov. 22, starting at 12:30 p.m.

While the traditional starting point of Christie Pits will continue this year, the Yonge route is a major change to the southbound portion of the parade.

“We’ve come down University [Avenue] historically, but we live in a big city, there’s construction happening, we understand that, so we’ve accommodated a new route,” said Clayton Charters, president and CEO of the Original Santa Claus Parade.

“It is really exciting. We’re going to go right by the Eaton Centre and Sankofa Square — that’s a new activation zone for us this year — so we encourage people to come out and see what’s going on at Sankofa Square and anywhere along the route.”

The route for the Toronto Santa Claus Parade in 2026. (Image credit: Original Santa Claus Parade)

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The changes also mean the parade route is slightly longer this year.

“The parade route is just about seven kilometers long this year,” Charters said.

He said once the parade starts at 12.30 p.m., the first floats will start to arrive at St. Lawrence Market two hours later, around 2:15 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. The parade is expected to wrap up around 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Several rotating road closures are scheduled to take place on Nov. 22, beginning in the hours before the parade and ending around 7 p.m. to accommodate the large number of floats, marching bands and participants. Click here for a full list.

“We work really, really closely with all of our partners at the City of Toronto, with Toronto Police Service, Fire and Toronto Paramedic Service to make sure that we’re putting on a great event that’s also very safe to everyone to take part in,” Charters said.

He said there are 23 floats in this year’s parade, including nine new ones, as well as 17 marching bands, acrobats and other performers.

“We’ve got a team of full-time staff who work on these floats year-round. They are handcrafted, hand-built, in collaboration with all of our sponsors and partners.”

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