DEPARTMENT STORE SANTAS: A GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST
Ghosts of Toronto's Past | Rebecca Barrett
The Eaton Centre is a pivotal landmark in Toronto. Right next to City Hall, connected directly to the TTC, and touching four major intersections, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid. I’ve known for a while that for this article, my last one before the holidays, I wanted to look at some of Toronto’s classic Christmas traditions. What I didn’t expect was that my research would repeatedly lead me back to the Eaton Centre.
Some of the Eaton Centre's holiday light displays. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Barrett.
Nowadays, the Eaton Centre’s most well-known Christmas tradition is probably their huge light displays in the shape of reindeers and Christmas trees that stand almost two stories high within the mall. But what I didn’t know, is that the Eaton Centre is responsible for so much more holiday cheer than just that – in fact, it started some of Toronto’s most renowned and long-lasting Christmas traditions!
Setting the scene: a postcard of Eaton's Old Storefront circa 1923. Source.
The Santa Claus Parade, in its current format, starts at Christie Pitts Park and ends at the St. Lawrence Market. But, when it initially began in 1905, the parade simply consisted of Santa Claus arriving at Union Station by train and walking up Bay Street with the Eaton family to the Eaton Centre, where he would hold court and meet all the kids. There were no floats, no band, and no crowds – the parade was essentially just a security escort to the Eaton Centre for Santa.
After a few years, this annual walk began drawing crowds of young children, who came out to cheer for Santa and (according to reports) throw snowballs at him. In 1913, the route changed to accommodate the growing crowds and the Eaton family introduced a sleigh and 8 live reindeer, specially brought in from Labrador, to pull Santa. This time, Santa paraded 30 miles down Yonge Street, ending at Massey Hall for a concert and a party (and who wouldn’t want to party with Santa?).
Santa Claus partying on his float in the middle of a huge crowd circa 1918. Source.
Around the time of the First World War, the parade began to develop its modern and familiar format. By 1917 there were 7 parade floats – most of which were storybook and nursery rhyme characters – and every year it would grow. By 1930, Eaton's Santa Claus Parade was aired on national radio, and by 1952, it was broadcast on CBC as the largest Santa Claus parade in North America. And to think: all of this fame and prominence because the Eatons had to pick up their department store Santa at the train station, 50 years earlier.
The famous Mother Goose parade float circa 1930, which was the longest continual float in service (featured in the parade annually from 1930-1960, each time painted a different colour). Source.
But the Santa Clause Parade isn’t the only Christmas tradition that the Eaton Centre introduced to Toronto. Since the beginning of the 20th century, there was an intense rivalry between Eaton’s and another Canadian department store, Simpsons. This rivalry resulted in a kind of “Christmas arms race” between the two stores. Each tried to design more and more elaborate and enticing holiday display windows as a way to outcompete one another and draw children (and, by extension, their families) into their stores. These displays would feature music, automatons, and mechanics all staged in a whimsical children's-themed diorama.
Children running over to look at Eaton's window display. No date. Crown Copyright. Source.
Children peering in at Eaton's window display circa 1953. Crown Copyright. Source.
Eaton's window display of Santa's workshop circa 1958. Crown Copyright. Source.
These display windows became an iconic symbol for the city that the holidays were coming – and even today, Hudson’s Bay (which bought out Simpsons) continues to celebrate the unveiling of its own holiday windows in the Eaton Centre. By now, the Bay’s window unveilings have become a huge production with free concerts at Queen and Yonge and celebrity appearances. Of course, over a hundred years later, the display windows look a little different:
In hindsight, I probably should have suspected that many of Toronto’s Christmas traditions began with department stores (like the Eaton Centre) and the rabid commercialism and consumerism therein. It might seem like an unromantic common origin for these traditions, but I think there’s still some magic floating around the city at this time of year. These traditions are still important because they are ingrained into the city’s fabric and they get us excited for the holiday season.
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