Sir: Having attended the Nov. 21 Santa Claus parade here in Chatham, I have to say what a disappointment. Chatham should have been embarrassed to even run the event.
It is a night parade which means ALL entries were required to have a minimum of five strings of lights on their entries.
Well a great number of them had no lights at all, making them very hard to see in the dark, and several who did bother to add lights just tossed a tangled mess of lights on the top of their vehicle, and that was it, no effort whatsoever.
There were very few actual float entries, few local businesses, very few charities and no elementary or high schools.
There was next to no Christmas music being played by any of the entries, no demonstrations. Just a bunch of people riding entries because they were told they had to? At least that is what it looked like.
In my opinion if Chatham wants to keep making a night time Santa parade, then they need to get their efforts together better. The smaller crowd turn out this year should have told them that much.
At least that is the point of view from where I was watching.
Estelle Demers
Chatham
