Adelaide Christmas Pageant 2022: Date, route and everything to know about the 2022 National Pharmacies Christmas Pageant
This year, the biggest Christmas pageant in the southern hemisphere will have 170 different sets, 3000 performers and 16 bands joining the parade.
“The older I get, the younger the pageant makes me feel,” the 9News Adelaide presenter said.
Ragless said it was an honour to be involved this year as it’s the 90th time the pageant has gone ahead, only pausing once during the Second World War.
“Christmas is just steeped in so much tradition in our lives here in Australia and it really kicks off the festive season … not just for Adelaide but the whole country,” the host of 15 years said.
He knows there will be grandparents watching on who remember the first one in 1933.
The pageant first began during the height of the great depression, with John Martin deciding to create a Christmas pageant to open his department store.
Ragless said it began ”as a way of returning joy to South Australians amid what was a fairly gloomy time”.
It started with about eight floats and four bands but this year the city is expecting about 300,000 people to line the streets.
Most of the floats still used to this day once pulled the baggage at train stations and airports across the country in the 1950s and 1960s.
“The amount of hours that goes into it is remarkable,” Ragless said.
“It is significant the amount of involvement, not to mention the volunteers behind the scenes.
“It is a massive thing to put on and preparation starts the day after it ends.”
And the huge amount of effort doesn’t go unnoticed in the family-friendly city.
Many parents and grandparents arrive as early as 3am to secure the best spots for their family.
“I will be going home on a Friday night after doing the news and there will be families securing their spot on the pageant route and that’s the night before,” he said.
One of the most special parts is the drawings families make on the streets before the pageant begins.
”Before the police go though and close off the pageant route, the kids go along and do chalk drawings and once we do our broadcast you see all the beautiful artwork from all the kids,” Ragless said.
And of course, the part that really sets the parade out from its worldwide competition is the blue honour line painted onto the road along the parade route.
“Most pageants around the world these days have big barricades, which prevent you from feeling like you are one with the pageant … the kids have to stand behind the line and they are very well-behaved,” Ragless said.
If you’re wondering why the Christmas pageant goes ahead in November, there are a few reasons.
The main one is to make sure Santa arrives in Adelaide before he appears in shopping centres so children don’t get confused.
”There is something really special about being able to bring the pageant home to people that can’t be there,” Ragless said.
The pageant will begin at 9.30am from South Terrace and finish with Father Christmas arriving at the Adelaide Town Hall.