What started out as a holiday tradition in Toronto’s Moore Park neighbourhood to raise money for food banks has now become a festive phenomenon that’s sweeping across North America.
Inglewood Drive, the heart of Toronto’s inflatable Santa tradition, has inspired U.S. cities to join in on all of the fun, with streets across the country now lined with towering Kris Kringles.
The tradition can be traced back to 2013, when residents decided to prop up 14-foot-tall inflatable Santas on their front lawns. Appropriately dubbed, “Kringlewood,” the tradition sees almost every house on the street, between St Clair East and Rosedale Heights, adorned with a massive Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.
Since the tradition began, Kringlewood has grown into an annual holiday spectacle, and expanded beyond Toronto, with similar displays popping up in other parts of Canada, including Halifax and Sudbury.
However, this year, the tradition has spread beyond Canada’s borders, as U.S. cities have started to catch on to the cheerful trend.
As recently highlighted in an NBC News broadcast segment this week, residents of Atwood, Illinois, were inspired by Kringlewood to transform their own streets into a winter wonderland after seeing “Ontario’s” famous Santas on TikTok.
Inflatable Santas have now popped up all over the neighbourhood, and some parents say they have even started taking detours on their morning drives to school to show their kids the festive spectacle.
@nbcnews An #Illinois street is lined with giant #Santa inflatables after a #TikTok trend inspired neighbors to coordinate #Christmas ♬ original sound – nbcnews
The tradition has also reached Lehi, Utah, where some residents have propped up giant inflatable Santas on their streets.
A local resident, Cassi Mortensen told KSL-TV that the idea to start the inflatable Santa display came after she saw a TikTok video of a similar street in Ontario, Canada.
“I had to go to my husband and be like, so we need to buy a Santa Claus, because we did a thing. And it kind of started from there and then it just spiralled to our entire neighbourhood, and it’s gone on to the next-door neighbourhood, it’s been amazing,” she told the news channel.
The towering inflatables, which are available at stores like Canadian Tire, Amazon, and Walmart come with a hefty price tag and can range anywhere from $50 to $250.
