Photo with the Belsnickel? Post it on Social Media to Show Your Love!

By: Dylan Bowman, HAHS Board Member

December 11, 2025

Visitors to the 22nd Annual Belsnickel Parade & Festival get their photo with the Belsnickel. Photograph by Emma Bowman.

Selfies and Stories

During the Belsnickel Parade & Festivities, I noticed (as with every year), a great number of individuals and families capturing EPIC photos with the grand old Belsnickel himself. As usual, there were even some photos captured with him disciplining the impish to the sheer delight of those admirable standing nearby.

In this digital age that we find ourselves in, it is my duty as the HAHS Digital Records Committee Chair to capture photo and video footages of the histories, both past and present, that are transpiring on the day to day. Just as in times past, these photos will help tell the story someday when all of us are long-gone.

I humbly ask you all who were there at the Belsnickel event to help us in a simple and yet critical way: share the Belsnickel love! The more that the Belsnickel is seen on the social media plane, the more that others will have the chance to see and become interested (as we ALL once were) in the story behind the Belsnickel. Perhaps they will even come to next year's event to experience the magic for themselves.

Visitors from far and wide get their photo with the Belsnickel at the 22nd Annual Belsnickel Parade & Festival. Photographs by Dylan Bowman.

With so many amazing photos taken with people of all ages, one can post the images on Facebook and Instagram with the tags: #halifaxareahistoricalsociety and #belsnickel. In doing this, it will not only allow for others to find it, but it will build up Halifax Belsnickel's name into something recognizable. One that can be admired and feared by those impish and admirable everywhere.

Thank you for helping make history by capturing moments at this historic occasion and sharing them both online and with your family and friends. Remember: though posting these images to the social media world helps spread the word that Belsnickel has returned, it is most important to share the stories that we live IN-PERSON with those we love and care about this holiday season and always.

Those are the moments that will live on in minds and hearts forever.

Visitors to the 22nd Annual Belsnickel Parade & Festival get their photo with the Belsnickel. Photographs by Dylan Bowman.