The 2018 Santa Claus Parade in Saint John. Image: Submitted

Applications to take part in Saint John’s two Santa Claus parades must be in by midnight on Thursday.

Organizer Blaine Harris said the uptown parade had 43 floats registered while the Lancaster parade on the west side event had 30 as of Tuesday.

“We’re hoping to bump those numbers up just a bit more. We’d like to sit just about 50 uptown and roughly around 40 on the west side would make us comfortable to put on a real nice parade,” Harris said.

The uptown parade is on November 19th starting at 6 p.m. while the Lancaster Santa Claus parade is on November 26th at 1 p.m.

Harris said the uptown parade will stick to its original route using King Street.

Letters for Santa will be collected at the beginning of the parade and near the end.

“The letter carriers will also be just slightly ahead of Santa Claus’ float. Anyone who didn’t get their letters to Santa can pass them off then,” Harris said.

Members of Local 18 will be at both parades collecting non-perishable food donations for food banks in the Saint John area.