Monday, November 22, 2010

The Oldest Children's Parade In The World

Santa outside Eaton's, 1921
Christmas-crazed revelers (and sometimes their horses) have been pushing, pulling, dragging and driving weird shit on wheels through the streets of Toronto every year for nearly a century. And the earliest Santa Claus Parade actually goes back even further than that. In 1905, Santa arrived at Union Station by train and headed up to the Eaton's department store at Yonge and Queen with the Eaton's family. It would take a few years before they added floats and marching bands and got the idea for Santa to end the parade by climbing up a ladder from his float to hoist himself, stumbling and cursing, through an open window into Toyland, where, apparently, there was a stiff drink waiting. (That's what's about to happen in the photo above; you can see the 1918 version of the same thing here.)

The whole thing, of course, became crazy popular—a marketing coup for the Eaton's brand. For years, Eaton's made all the floats, expected every employee to help out on the day of the parade, and enjoyed the boost in sales that having Santa lead swarms of Christmas shoppers directly to your store will give you. There was a time when every Canadian child who sent a letter to Santa had it answered by Eaton's. Promotional films of the parade were given out free to schools and churches. It was shown live on TV not only here, but across Canada and the U.S. The Toronto parade was such a massive success that  it inspired Macy's to start their own New York version in 1924.

-----

The Archives of Ontario have an online exhibition of old photos of the parade here. Including this penguin from the 1931 edition, photographers filming the 1969 parade here, and the 1917 Santa making his way through the crowd on horseback here. There's a neat-looking Santa Claus from I'm-not-sure-which-year here. And there are a few more photos included in this Historicist column on Torontoist.

There's also a lot of old footage from over the years. The Archives of Ontario exhibit has some, and there's a YouTube archive here. There's film of 1928's parade here. And 1960, in four parts, starting here.

Finally, here are seven minutes of footage from the 1929 parade, including "Wiggly Waggly Pollywog", "Our Friend, The Tumbling Clown" and token racist entry, "The Crocodile With Moving Jaws And Flipping Tail Carried By Ten Little Zulus". Oh and, of course, Santa Claus riding another giant fish:

19 comments:

  1. Hi Good day
    It was really useful for me
    Thanks for putting it on your site
    I come to your site every week – thank you 경마사이트

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone
    4! Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts!
    Carry on the fantastic work! 카지노사이트

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello, just wanted to mention, I loved this post.
    It was helpful. Keep on posting! 룰렛

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent site you've got here.. It's hard to find high-quality writing like yours nowadays. I seriously appreciate individuals like you! 토토

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is one of the best website I have seen in a long time thank you so much. 바둑이사이트

    ReplyDelete
  6. I carry on listening to the news speak about getting boundless online grant applications so I have been looking around for the most excellent site to get one.

    토토
    스포츠토토
    파워볼게임
    안전놀이터

    ReplyDelete
  7. MPU-FOGDUB. Thus, for each author in each dataset we produced 토토사이트

    ReplyDelete

  8. Nice article. This is quite informative.

    ReplyDelete

  9. This is incredible, I feel really happy to have seen your webpage.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I feel very grateful that I read this article. Still waiting for some

    ReplyDelete
  11. You’ve written information I can finally agree on. Many thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I located the information very useful. You're a great author in this generation

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lot of informative blog are provided here, Happy to read this good post.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Please keep us up to data like this. Thanks for sharing and Keep on writing

    ReplyDelete
  15. I’m glad to read this article. The website style is perfect, I'll support your articles

    ReplyDelete
  16. Simply desire to say this article is as great. Keep updated, write more

    ReplyDelete
  17. I found your perspective on this article. While I agree with some aspects, I'd like to present an alternative viewpoint. I'm thrilled to share that it has made a significant impact on my work. Thank you for sharing practical and actionable insights!"Órdenes Protección Mutua Nueva Jersey

    ReplyDelete



  18. Good post. Thanks for sharing with us. I just loved your way of presentation

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thank you for providing your excellent information. Please continue to post.Abogado Criminal del Condado Prince William

    ReplyDelete