On Saturday, December 1st at 10:00 a.m. the seventeenth annual Etobicoke Lakeshore Christmas Parade was held. In 1996, the City of Etobicoke Council endorsed the parade as the official Christmas Parade of Etobicoke.

The parade was ranked as the 4th best in Toronto and this year included 10 marchingbands and 15 professionally built floats. The media reported that as many as 70,000people have attended the parade.

This is the second year in a row that The Tian Guo Marching Band was invited to theparade. Even though it was a chilly -C10 degrees, thousands of spectators lined thestreets to watch the parade. The band was given a warm welcome from the crowd.

Mr. John Scheffer, one of the parade organizer's, stated that The Tian Guo MarchingBand is different than other bands. He found the music inspiring and liked the colorfuluniforms. The organizer said that he really enjoyed the performance and was sure thatothers felt the same way. He invited the band to return to next year's parade onDecember 6, 2008.