We just passed Thanksgiving and for some attention turns to Christmas and specifically the High River Santa Claus Parade.

Ted Dawson says preparations are already underway.

"It's exciting, this will be our 36th annual Santa Claus Parade and it's going to be an actual parade this year so we're really excited about that and we're getting ready to do the lights in the park and we've added some more displays for this year, so things are getting in gear," he says. "The last two years the Santa Claus and Little Britches have been 'Porch Parades where we just took basically the essentials of the parades and went through different areas of town, so this year we're back to our normal route."

The parade is set for Friday, December 2nd. 

Lights are going up in George Lane Park November 3rd, 4th and 5th with the help of Fortis and High River Rentals to get the lights up in the tall trees.

"If anybody would like to come out for any of the work bees that would be wonderful, they could me a call at 403-652-6371, it would be wonderful to have a few more younger legs there," he says.

There's also a work bee set for Saturday Oct 15th to get things ready. 

Dawson says the outdoor rink will be going in again in the park.

"We've got our liner and the boards and everything else so that'll be going up on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of November and then depending on the weather, when it starts getting cold then again with the help of the Town's Operations Department we'll start filling the skating rink bladder with water and once we get enough cold weather to get a good six inches of ice in the rink it'll be open and ready to go," he explained.

Dawson admits he's hoping for some nice weather for the set up and then cold for the rink.