Chtertainment HANDOUT photo Mr. Kringle has come to town to grace the Rogers Santa Claus Parade with his jolly spirit. The parade is happening downtown Sunday. Santa sleighs into Vancouver Father Christmas will be making stops at the Granville Island kids Market and at the 9th annual Rogers Santa Claus Parade on Sunday By RICHARD HODGES & GILLIAN HAMES Us beginning to look a lot like Christmas as Santa Claus is set to descend on Vancouver. The bearded gift-giver will make a big splash in a downtown parade this Sunday while moving into his new digs at Granville Island Kids Market. “The reindeer are ready to go, the elves are put to work, it’s my time of the year,” said Paul Marshall, who is playing Kris Kringle for the Kids Mar- ket. This year, Father Christmas says the hot toy for under the tree is the popular computer game Minecraft. He also mentioned a_ surprising comeback. “Pokemon are really big this year,” he said. Don’t count on Pere Noel for another surprising comeback this holiday sea- son, however. “I don’t have the power to bring hockey back,” he said. “I would make a lot of grown men happy if I could.” Saint Nicholas will make his first public appearance of the season at the Rogers Santa Claus Parade this Sun- day at 1 p.m. in front of as many as 300,000 spirited Vancouverites. The pa- rade will start down W Georgia Street and finish at Howe and Davie. He’ll be hanging out at the Robson Ice Rink for photo opportunities between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Lana Loyer, general manager of the Kids Market on Granville Island, is also busy getting ready for Santy’s arrival on Dec. 1. “We're all decorated,” she said, add- ing the last step is to prepare Papa No- el’s workshop for the big day. Jolly old Saint Nick will be there al- most every day to take photos and com- pare lists. “The kids of have been really good this year, we’ve got the elves on 12- hour shifts,” Sinterklaas remarked. Kids Market is open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The big man will be there most days from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. NIA'S aliases SINTERKLAAS Santa from the Netherlands, with his assistants called “Zwarte Piet” (Black Peter) FATHER CHRISTMAS English figurehead of Christmas pre-Santa Claus SAINT NICHOLAS Ath-century saint whose generosity made him the model for Santa Claus Source: Santa's Workshop Blood and Chrome set to excite fans The webseries is an action-packed prequel to the popular TV series By SAM REYNOLDS tica, the web series Blood and Chrome has been something of a godsend. A reboot of the cheesy 1970s series of the same name, Battlestar Galactica told the tale of the last survivors of a nuclear holocaust — a surprise attack by a sentient race of robots that once served them, called the Cylons — look- ing for Earth, which, in their universe, is a planet that exists only in religious fables. Shot in Vancouver, Blood and Chrome brings viewers three decades before the start of Battlestar to the first war between humanity and their cy- bernetic foes. The series follows the protagonist William Adama, played by Brit Luke Pasqualino, when he was not the com- mander of the titular Battlestar, but rather a young fighter pilot. In a recent press conference call, ex- ecutive producer David Eick said the show will flesh out the character of Ad- ama fans knew by showing him as a young pilot in his first combative en- counter with cylons. “Why was this man that we will later meet in Battlestar Galactica so uni- formly and uncompromisingly commit- ted to the utter eradication and disillu- sion of this race of robot people? Where did that come from? ” Eick said. Blood and Chrome isn’t the first Bat- tlestar spinoff -- 2010 saw the release of Caprica, a prequel series that focused on the origins of the Cylon robots and how they went from servant to slaugh- terers. The producers of Blood Chrome rec- ognized Caprica’s fatal flaw. Blood and Chrome focuses more on the action of spacebattles than the political drama of Caprica. The series opens with an epic battle between Adama, his com- rades, and a fleet of Cylon ships — the kinetic frenzy of this scene is the pace the series keeps throughout the epi- sodes that have aired to date. Blood and Chrome is an impressive series for its medium. The script has its fair share of cliches, but the cast is strong and the action scenes are well paced and stylish. For a fan of Battle- star Galactica, it’s a must watch. F: those missing Battlestar Galac- Christmas lights up VanDusen Botanical Gardens The 2012 Festival of Lights will be sure to brighten up even the sourest of Scrooges this season By KATJA DE BOCK ancy Wong will take a deep ta and enjoy the fruits of a year-long preparation when over one million lights are switched on at VanDusen Botanical Garden on Dec. 7. The Festival of Lights is the annual highlight at the garden, offering a unique two-hour walk through a magi- cal winter wonderland, in the rainy Vancouver climate. “Tt is completely secular,” said media spokeswoman Nancy Wong about the festival, which opens the holiday sea- son. “We get visitors from different cul- tural backgrounds. But we do need to have Santa Claus — he is cross-cultural. He is an equal-opportunity toy-giver.” Wong said she’s thrilled about the return of the two gnomes Svend and Jens, who entertain the children. “Way back when the Vikings were in Germany and England, they had them with them,” she said, adding that the mythical creatures would eventually be converted to garden gnomes in the Germanic world. According to Wong, when the North American Santa was created by a Coca- Cola designer, he was inspired by the Scandinavian gnomes. Hence the attribution of Santa to the North Pole, and reindeer, that live in the Scandinavian north. “So, Santa and the gnomes are actu- ally cousins,” said Wong, who re- marked her Chinese-Scandinavian background made her “typically Cana- dian.” If the rain does come pouring down, children small and tall can retreat to the visitor centre’s discovery room, where a large Lego winter wonderland will be displayed. The Legoland will display a fictional city with a harbour, a ski hill and two train tracks. Pierre Chum is one of the members of the Vancouver Lego Club, which con- sists of 30 adult hobbyists of all things Lego. The club is not affilliated with or sponsored by the brand. “This display will be built more for kids,” said Chum. Visitors will be asked for a donation to Make-A-Wish B.C., a foundation that helps children with life-threatening diseases. Chum wants to give back, because his niece, who had cancer at the age of five, was given a free trip to Disneyland by the foundation. The Festival of Lights runs daily from 4:30 p.m. till 9 p.m., from Dec. 7 - Jan. 1, with the exception of Christmas Day and in the case of extraordinary weather conditions. Students pay adult admission: $14.25. RAYMOND CHAN photo These trees lit up the 2011 Festival of Lights at VanDu- sen Botanical Gardens.