Reminiscence Lane: Christmas procuring within the downtown of yesteryear

As Andy Williams reminds us in his 1963 traditional, Christmas is “the most wonderful time of the year”. The music is a celebration and outline of actions related to the Christmas season, focusing totally on get-togethers between mates and households. 

However what’s lacking from the music? Nicely, it’s the duty that a few of us most affiliate with Christmas, whether or not we adore it or dread it … Christmas procuring.

Now pull up a chair in entrance of that roaring Christmas hearth and let’s go on a journey again in time to the downtown of our youth (or that of our mother and father and grandparents) and take a look at what Christmas procuring was like when downtown Sudbury was the retail centre of our metropolis.

Dashing by way of the … mud?! Not precisely the image we now have in our head once we start to sing “Jingle Bells”, however if you happen to had been to go Christmas procuring in Sudbury circa 1914, that simply is perhaps what you had been doing. 

In that first vacation season of the Nice Struggle years, Christmas procuring roughly concerned a household navigating their method by way of the snow and dust in that one horse open sleigh of yore or trudging by way of the ruts and strolling alongside the wood sidewalks that bordered the entire roads at the moment.

Within the early years of the City of Sudbury, the Christmas procuring sizzling spot was Durham Road, centered round Mr. F.M. Stafford’s “Twin Shops” on the northwest nook at Larch Road. (Keep in mind this location, it would play an necessary function once more sooner or later). 

The shop’s ads main as much as the vacation reminded everybody that “YOU are going to be Santa Claus, too.” Consumers may select from an unlimited assortment of clothes with most costs hovering across the $1 mark, together with teddy bears and dolls for the kids and even furs at 25-per-cent off.

If clothes wasn’t what the distinguished gentleman had in thoughts, he may stroll over to Beath’s Jewellers and pick a watch bracelet, “A Christmas Reward That Any Woman Will Prize.” And, then, in fact, he may additionally head over to Cochrane’s {Hardware} to buy a lovely wood toboggan for the kids to get pleasure from for numerous hours out within the snow on Christmas Day whereas the adults are enjoyable and getting ready for dinner.

Due to in style tradition, our nostalgic remembrances of Christmas procuring in occasions previous doesn’t relaxation on this earlier, post-Edwardian life. In truth, it’s nearly all the time paying homage to mid-Twentieth century modes of costume and decor. 

That aesthetic is captured completely in a short scene from “The Godfather” the place Michael Corleone and his spouse, Kay, are seen exiting a retailer into the evenly falling snow dressed of their best Sunday garments, carrying stacks of wrapped reward bins and handfuls of paper luggage.

By the Forties and Nineteen Fifties, if you happen to had been to inform somebody that you simply had been going Christmas procuring, it was probably at a kind of two venerable native department shops, F.W. Woolworth and S.S. Kresge, which resided inside a stones-throw of one another. 

Kresge’s beckoned mother and father with the reminder to everybody that that they had “No Scarcity of Toys” for the youngsters. I’m certain the employees at Woolworth’s would have mentioned the identical factor about their toy division as effectively. And, don’t overlook to cease by and see Santa to inform him what you need him to deliver on Christmas morning. 

As a throwback to the less complicated occasions, you would bypass Woolworth’s and Kresge’s, and head to Birks-Ellis Jewellery to buy a conceit set for the particular woman in your life, “a formidable reward that deserves confidence.” After all, since we’re down that method, allow us to not overlook about Eaton’s, that Canadian retail mecca that continued the custom of being the go-to procuring vacation spot on the nook of Durham and Larch which started with the Twin Shops. 

Durham Road itself on the time was an ideal instance of that mid-century Christmas aesthetic talked about earlier, being essentially the most adorned road on the town. The combination of the Vacation-specific lighting and the assorted shops’ neon lights reflecting off the falling snow, in addition to the plentiful Christmas shows within the home windows of almost each retailer, did a lot to intensify the Christmas spirit.

Within the Sixties, the Zellers retailer, which changed the Balmoral Resort on the nook of Elm and Elgin Streets, welcomed customers to go to Santa’s Toyland, with a adorned street-side window. One 12 months it was even anchored by a tree almost paying homage to the one which bought Charlie Brown in hassle.

Starting within the Nineteen Fifties, and on the alternative finish of the downtown, if you happen to bought off the bus on the Union Depot, one of many first locations you might have ended up at was Walter Muncaster’s Canadian Tire retailer. On the Elm Road facet, you’d be greeted by the sight of a jolly fats Santa using a rocket (missile?) pointed on the buildings that comprised the Borgia neighbourhood. 

They’d not survive one other 10 years, and their demise would deliver concerning the subsequent stage within the downtown’s procuring evolution.

Now, quick ahead (however not too quick otherwise you’ll miss it) to the Seventies, with the doorway of the Metropolis Centre onto the scene. This alternative of the Borgia heralded {that a} sea change in downtown Sudbury Christmas procuring was on the horizon. Slowly disappearing had been the times of hopping from retailer to retailer (and from heat to indoor consolation to chilly northern climate) for that excellent Christmas current. It was changed by a heat “one-stop procuring” expertise with Santa within the Centre (Courtroom) of all of it. 

Keep in mind that Eaton’s retailer that everybody flocked to on Durham? It took its top-notch Christmas tree shows and moved to the nook of Elm and Notre Dame. As a mall anchor, it turned one of many two most necessary shops within the Metropolis Centre, together with Bonimart on the reverse finish. 

Christmas procuring in Sudbury had begun its march in the direction of turning into a totally indoor pastime. 

Consumers may now spend your entire day making their method alongside adorned hallways from retailer to retailer. Dad and mom, in fact, may make it a household affair and convey their kids to satisfy Santa (and even get a Polaroid to seize these “few thrilling moments”) at his particular citadel.

With the day’s procuring completed, the Seventies household leaves the Metropolis Centre with their purchases and stuffed with the Christmas spirit.  Into the gently falling snow they stroll because the downtown of their current melds with the downtown of the previous, represented by the Woolworth’s retailer in plain view on the nook of Elm and Durham. The recollections of previous Christmas procuring excursions come flooding again bringing a smile to the face and a tear to the attention.

As Christmas attracts close to, we’d like to know, what do you, expensive readers, keep in mind most about Christmas procuring within the downtown? What had been your favorite sights, sounds and smells of the season?

Jason Marcon is a author and historical past fanatic in Higher Sudbury. He runs the Coniston Historical Group and the Sudbury Then and Now Facebook page. Reminiscence Lane is made attainable by our Community Leaders Program.