By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
The annual Christmas parade will return to the streets of Cowansville for the first time since 2019, city officials announced on Oct. 24.
At 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 15, the parade will start at the corner of Rue du Sud and Rue Léopold. It will end at Parc Centre-Ville, on Rue Principale, where a neighbourhood party with a DJ, bouncy castles and other activities will await parade-goers.
“The return of the Christmas parade is a source of joy for our city. This event
brings families together, brings magic to our streets and creates treasured memories
for our young citizens. As it is an event that requires a lot of logistics, citizen participation will be essential. We hope citizens and the business community will answer the call so that the parade is majestic,” said Mayor Sylvie Beauregard.
“It’s a big event that brings people together, and everyone is excited,” said Patricia Néron, special events and communications co-ordinator at the Ville de Cowansville. “People are looking forward to seeing the floats and seeing Santa, and everything else is dessert.”
The city is seeking businesses and community organizations to build floats for the parade. There’s also a need for volunteers to supervise children’s activities, serve as mascots, lead mascots around the parade site “because they can’t see in their costumes” and ride on floats, Néron said.
According to Michel Racicot of the Cowansville Historical Society, the first Cowansville Christmas Parade was organized by the Brock Mills Textile Plant in 1944, and ran from the current Brock Museum, then the workers’ recreation club, to the mill. The mill, then the town’s largest employer, kept the tradition going until around 1960, when the Young Chamber of Commerce took over the parade. Racicot has fond memories of parades during those years, when Santa Claus would land at the head of the parade in a helicopter before kicking off the festivities.
The Young Chamber of Commerce dissolved in the 1970s and the parade was taken over by the Cowansville Chamber of Commerce (now the Chambre de commerce de Brome-Missisquoi), which organized it until 2019. In 2020, the parade was cancelled due to public health measures, and in 2021 the city organized a COVID-safe “Christmas trail” where drivers could watch performances and admire floats from their cars. There was no parade in 2022. The 2023 parade is the first “normal” parade since the pandemic, the first organized by the municipality and the first to feature a post-parade party.
“We’ll have a festive atmosphere, we’ll have music, we’ll have Santa Claus, and this year we’ll have an event in the park,” Néron said. “We want families to continue their event after the parade and go meet Santa. I can’t wait to see the kids’ faces.”
Anyone who is interested in volunteering or contributing a float to the parade can learn more at cowansville.ca/noel.