What to expect

The 20th Annual Chronicle Herald Holiday Parade of Lights gets started at 6 p.m.

Olympic athlete Mark de Jonge will be this year's parade marshal. (Aaron Lynett/Canadian Press)

Donations of non-perishables or cash for FEED Nova Scotia are being accepted. So are children's toys for the C100-Cineplex Toy Drive.

New this year is the Red Nose Run also in support of FEED Nova Scotia. It starts at 5:45 p.m. and follows the same route as the parade. Registration is now sold out.

Canada Post is also welcoming letters they can send to Santa Claus.

Canadian Olympic medalist Mark de Jonge is this year's Parade Marshal.

Route

The route's about four kilometres long.

The parade starts on Upper Water Street south of the CFB Halifax Dockyard and continues onto Barrington Street through the Cogswell Interchange

It continues on Barrington Street until Spring Garden Road

The parade turns up Spring Garden Road then left onto South Park Street

It turns right from South Park Street onto University Avenue, past the IWK Children's Hospital

It ends at the corner of University Avenue and Robie Street.

Driving? Valour Way — located between the Macdonald Bridge and Upper Water Street — will only be open to parade participants and DND staff only.

Robie Street between University Avenue and College Street will remain closed as those participants clear the floats.

Weather

CBC's Kalin Mitchell says the weather is going to be cool and wet.

Skies will be mostly cloudy skies with a 60 per cent chance of showers.

Wind will blow from the east at 10 to 20 km/h. Temperatures will stay steady around eight degrees for the length of the parade.

The parade is set to go rain or shine.

Transit

The ferry service between the Alderney and Halifax ferry terminals is free beginning at 3 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. It will operate on a 15-minute frequency.

Halifax Transit buses that travel on the affected downtown Halifax streets will be detoured starting at 6 p.m.

Visit the Service Disruptions page for more information.

Bridges

The Macdonald Bridge will close Friday Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. and reopen 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

The bridge will stay open for the parade and will close at 7 p.m. Sunday.

It will reopen again on Monday Nov. 23 at 5:30 a.m.

Best places to watch

Here's what some are saying on Twitter.

<a href="https://twitter.com/CBCNS">@CBCNS</a> from my sofa at home! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/warm?src=hash">#warm</a> —@Christine_AGD

<a href="https://twitter.com/CBCNS">@CBCNS</a> Usually right on Barrington, by Scotia Square, but my family might be on a float this year! Exciting! —@mackaylc