Toronto’s favourite holiday traditions have deep roots. Here’s how Christmas in the city grew into what it is today.
The Santa Claus Parade (1905)
The parade began in 1905, when the Eaton’s department store brought Santa to Toronto. He arrived by train and walked to the store, greeted by crowds. Over the decades it grew into a grand procession of floats and bands and one of the largest Christmas parades in North America. Eaton’s sponsored it until the early 1980s, when local businesses and volunteers stepped in to keep it going. Today it’s run by a non-profit. Santa Claus Parade guide
Department store windows
For generations, families lined up on Queen and Yonge streets to see animated Christmas windows at Eaton’s and Simpson’s, the city’s rival department stores. The tradition lives on in festive windows downtown. Christmas window displays
The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (1922)
First held in 1922, the Royal has long marked the start of the holiday season for many Ontario families. Royal Winter Fair
Nathan Phillips Square and the Cavalcade of Lights (1967)
Toronto’s City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square opened in 1965. Two years later, in Canada’s centennial year of 1967, the Cavalcade of Lights began, and the square’s rink became a symbol of Toronto winters. Cavalcade of Lights
A modern classic: the Distillery
The Distillery District’s Christmas market launched in 2010, inspired by European markets, and is now the Distillery Winter Village.
Christmas in early Toronto
When Toronto was still the town of York in the early 1800s, Christmas was a modest affair for most families, centred on church services, simple meals and visits with neighbours. British, Scottish and Irish settlers brought their own customs, from plum pudding to carol singing, while German immigrants helped popularise the decorated Christmas tree in Ontario during the 19th century. By the late 1800s, as Toronto grew into an industrial city, Christmas shopping, decorated shop windows and charitable drives for the poor became part of the season.
The department store era
The rise of Eaton’s and Simpson’s transformed Christmas in Toronto. Their catalogues brought holiday shopping to families across Canada, their Santas drew huge crowds, and their windows became annual destinations. The Eaton’s catalogue, in particular, became a beloved part of Canadian Christmas, with children circling the toys they hoped for. Eaton’s went bankrupt in 1999, and the Simpson’s store became The Bay, which itself closed in 2025, but their legacies live on in the parade and the windows.
Toronto’s growing diversity
After the Second World War, and especially from the 1960s on, immigration from Italy, Portugal, Greece, the Caribbean, East and South Asia, the Philippines, Africa and Latin America reshaped Toronto. Each community brought its own holiday traditions, from the Feast of the Seven Fishes and Simbang Gabi to Caribbean black cake and Orthodox Christmas on January 7. Today, Toronto’s December celebrations are among the most diverse in the world.
Modern traditions
- Outdoor skating became central to Toronto winters with the opening of Nathan Phillips Square in 1965.
- The CPKC Holiday Train, first run in 1999, now stops in Toronto every year.
- The Distillery Winter Village, founded in 2010, made the European-style Christmas market a Toronto tradition.
- New Year’s Eve on the waterfront began in 2025, when the City moved its celebration from Nathan Phillips Square.
History of Christmas in Toronto: FAQ
When did the Toronto Santa Claus Parade start? In 1905.
What was Toronto’s first big Christmas tradition? The Eaton’s Santa Claus Parade and department store windows, which shaped Christmas in the city for most of the 20th century.
A city of many traditions
Waves of immigration have made Toronto’s holidays wonderfully diverse. See holiday traditions in Toronto.
