Few grinches in Windsor — residents most excited for the holidays, survey says

A new survey suggests Windsor is the Canadian city most excited for Christmas as a number of holiday events and festivals take place this weekend.

According to research by BestCasinoSites.net, Ontario is the most polarized province when it comes to looking forward to the holidays, with Windsor the most excited city, while Vaughan ranks the least.

“I feel like around here we're always excited for the holidays just because you know, all we really have around here is family,” said Windsor resident Alize McCowin. “There isn't really a lot of crazy stuff going on.”

“Windsor is pretty boring and gray and the holidays, the one time we get some colour, so, you know, it's a good vibe.”

Others say the spirit of the season is abound because of events like Bright Lights Windsor which kicks off Friday evening.

“Extremely excited for the holidays,” exclaimed Windsor mom Erica Bauer.

“It's magic in their eyes and the elves came to visit today. So we're all really pumped,” she said.

The Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association (DWBIA) is excited for the season with the return of the Santa Claus parade to the downtown core on Saturday, along with the Downtown Windsor Holiday Market inside the Pelisser Street parking garage.

“We are super excited to be bringing the Santa Claus parade back down to Ouellette,” said DWBIA chair Chris MacLeod. “It's been a while that it hasn't been downtown and it really should be downtown.”

“On a typical Saturday, during the summer we have 3,500 people down here on Pelissier for the market. And so you know I guess that's kind of our expectation.”

MacLeod noted the DWBIA is also holding a holiday giveaway to captivate Taylor Swift fans between Dec. 2 and 27, with shoppers at participating downtown stores getting the chance to enter a draw to win two tickets to Swift’s concert in Toronto in November 2024.

“It would be a great way to ring in the New Year,” MacLeod said.

Meanwhile, officials with the Windsor Parade Corporation suggest this year’s 55th annual Santa Claus parade will be one of the biggest the Windsor region has seen in several years.

Executive director of the Windsor Parade Corporation, Maggie Durocher told CTV News, “It's the largest Santa parade we've had in years and years and years. It's actually larger than the 2017 Canada Day parade and the Canada Day parades historically are quite large.”

“We have nine musical entries. Eight of those are marching bands, pipe bands, etc. And one is a 40 member multicultural choir.”

According to Durocher, the parade in Amherstburg last weekend was also well attended with expectations set high for the December 9th parade in Essex.

“It's a very large parade. We're excited by it. So it's nice to see the kind of participation that we see in these types of events,” she said.