Celebrating 60 years of Christmas Daddies

Hosted and produced by CTV on-air and off-air staff, the Christmas Daddies Telethon, with broadcast time donated by CTV, helps provide a better holiday season for some Maritime children.

Christmas Daddies has been around for 60 years with money raised over the decades pledged by generous Maritimers.

“Our best accumulation for how much we have raised over the years, is $38.5 million,” said executive director Roxanne Robinson.

The New Brunswick edition of Christmas Daddies is celebrating 50 years. The first show in Moncton was in December 1974.

“Most of our performances then, we had live programming,” said retired CTV Moncton employee Jack Christie.

That tradition continues, but to put a number on the total volunteers who have given their time to the telethon over the decades, it’s countless.

“Thousands. Absolutely thousands,” said Robinson.

NSCC marketing and public relations teacher Ed McHugh has been watching Christmas Daddies since the days of black and white TV.

If you ask McHugh to describe the telethon in a few words, “I say giving, community, meaningful, meaningful, long-term, caring, social structure, vital, part of social structure,” said McHugh who called the telethon a major and meaningful piece of Maritime culture.

“There is a social fabric to all of us and we are all interdependent.”

McHugh also said Christmas Daddies fills a need that government and volunteer organizations cannot fill by themselves.

“This brand of Christmas Daddies is immense,” said McHugh. “There are people watching tomorrow who will not be giving because they can’t give but they will be the beneficiaries of this program.”

The 60th annual Christmas Daddies Telethon on CTV will air Saturday from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.