We took the twins to see their first Adelaide Christmas Pageant today. They had previously been to the Mount Gambier Christmas Parade, but as you would expect, the Adelaide event is somewhat bigger.
The route is 3.3km long. For about 10 minutes, the pageant took over the whole of King William Street from South Terrace to Victoria Square and Flinders Street to North Terrace.
Apparently it took 15 trucks to transport costumes, shapes, heads, bikes and props to Pulteney Grammar, the starting point, the day before the pageant.
The first pageant in 1933 had eight floats and four bands. The 2011 Credit Union Christmas Pageant had 63 floats and 15 bands plus nine walking sets, 10 dance groups, one DJ and three choirs.
In 2010 the Christmas Pageant broke the Guinness World Record for the largest group of carol singers. This year a new record was set for the largest gathering of people wearing red noses.
I wasn’t one of them, having an aversion to red noses, but the kids wore two noses each, not counting their own.
It was hot in the sun, but the kids enjoyed it. There was lots of noise and color.
Santa brought up the rear of the parade and got a big cheer. In Adelaide he is known as Father Christmas. Here is a short video:
