The city is looking for people and groups who want to participate in what’s expected to be a “signature winter experience” for years to come in Mississauga’s downtown core.

Some nine months removed from what the City of Mississauga described as a “highly successful” 2025 Christmastime spectacle, in which the annual Santa Claus parade returned to Mississauga’s City Centre by Square One for the first time in almost 25 years, officials are now ramping up efforts to organize this year’s major event.

The 2026 Santa Claus parade is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 21 in the downtown core and the city is putting out the call for float entries and walking groups who want to participate. The parade starts at 6 p.m.

The annual parade, this year being presented under the theme “Sauga’s Home for the Holidays,” will kick off the holiday season, “bringing together dazzling, illuminated floats, festive entertainment and family-friendly fun,” city officials said this week.

Parade and other activities part of the plan

The lighting of the Christmas tree at Celebration Square and the opening for the season of Mississauga’s largest outdoor ice rink, also at the square, are also taking place the afternoon and evening of the parade.

The 2026 parade theme invites participants to showcase the “traditions, cultures, stories and people that make our city feel like home,” the city said, adding “organizations interested in participating are encouraged to apply early. Businesses, community groups and performers can showcase their holiday spirit, creativity and community pride in Mississauga’s largest winter event.”

Applications that meet participant criteria will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis and will close on Sept. 30 or once the parade hits capacity, officials noted.

The city is also looking for volunteers to serve as parade marshals, ambassadors and staging support. Volunteer applications close on Nov. 3.

Those interested in participating in the parade or being a volunteer are urged to sign up as soon as possible, the city said.

The star attraction at the 2025 Santa Claus parade in Mississauga’s downtown core. (Photo: City of Mississauga)

In a report presented to the mayor and councillors earlier this year, the city’s community services commissioner Raj Sheth laid out a framework with which to proceed with plans for the 2026 event while also pointing to the success of last year’s parade.

The report noted the “2025 Santa Claus parade was highly successful, offering significant community benefit and bolstering activity at downtown businesses.”

Following the holiday event, “Square One Shopping Centre reported an influx of 7,000-10,000 visitors, with anecdotal evidence of increased business at downtown restaurants on parade day,” Sheth continued in his report.

“Signature winter experience” for years to come

He added last November’s parade “demonstrated its potential as a signature winter experience” that can continue for years to come.

“The 2025 Santa Claus parade delivered positive results and confirmed community interest in continuing this new signature initiative,” Sheth said.

The 2025 nighttime parade drew some 40,000 people to the City Centre area next to Square One Shopping Centre to witness 58 floats, five marching bands and hundreds of other participants decked out in festive costumes make their way through the decorated streets surrounding city hall.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish told INsauga.com in an interview shortly afterward that turnout for the parade — the first held in the downtown core since 2001 — was about “twice as many people as we expected.”

2026 parade expected to top last year’s event

The mayor, who earlier in 2025 began brainstorming the idea to bring the Santa Claus parade back to the city’s downtown core after an absence of more than two decades, also said at the time while she was extremely happy with how things turned out, she already had a few ideas about how to make the 2026 parade even better.

Starting at Rathburn Road and Living Arts Drive, the 2025 parade travelled along Living Arts Drive, turned left onto City Centre Drive and finished at City Centre Drive and Kariya Gate.

In its early years decades ago, the Mississauga Santa Claus parade used various routes along sections of both Burnhamthorpe Road and Hurontario Street, ending at Square One.


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