Ho ho ho! It's that special time of year again... disorientingly early Christmas celebration time!

The Toronto Santa Claus Parade is kicking off at 12:30 p.m. today and will very gradually bring good tidings of joy east down Bloor from Christie to University, then south down the east side of University to Queen, across Queen to Yonge and then down Yonge to Front.

With a thermos of hot chocolate, that always makes for a fun day, but if you had too much fun with a thermos of tequila last night and are groggily reading this a few hours too late, you haven't necessarily missed out on the seasonal parade experience.

Toronto4Kids has put together a list of all the Santa Claus parades across the GTA, and while some have already come and gone, others are dated as late as December. The closest to the core are mainly happening next weekend (Nov 24th/25th), with one of those (Weston's) actually being in the 416 and the others being barely 905, such as Mississauga, Markham and more.

Also, for some reason the TTC is advertising "a great bargain for families and groups attending the parade" in the form of a $9 day pass, but this is actually the increased price that came into effect this month, not a discount.

Photo: Untitled parade '06 shot by blogTO Flickr pool contributor Bahman.