I’m pretty sure the department store Mom took me to was Harris’. It was the place at Christmas.
Being of a certain age, ditto so I left DCnC’s first poll empty and responded to the second. I would have been 20 months old and in the photo am looking distinctly unhappy,
I’ve visited Santa, but as far as I can remember never specifically a Mall or Department Store Santa. The closest malls were not all that close (For that reason I voted that we didn’t have malls), and I don’t recall if the local Belk department store ever had a Santa.
We actually had a Neighborhood Santa, which is probably fairly unusual. He was a retiree who lived down the street who naturally had a white beard and would play Santa for the neighborhood kids every year. I think for a while I believed our neighbor literally was Santa, which was a little confusing since Santa was supposed to live at the North Pole, and we did not live at the North Pole.
There was also a Santa at Dad’s office Christmas party every year, but my friend and I figured out that he wasn’t the real Santa.
I remember shopping with my mom before Christmas one year. I noticed that there was a Santa in several of the department stores we shopped at. I asked my mom why there was more than one Santa. She said that some of them were his helpers. That shut me up, but I continued to puzzle about it. Why were his helpers deceptively dressing as Santa? Does Santa know about this?
I can’t remember whether I ever actually believed in Santa, as anything other than a fun story. By the time I can remember I was already reading fiction knowing it was fiction, including reading fairytales knowing that nobody expected real fairies to show up; I think I may have assumed Santa was a similar fiction. People dressed up to play fictional characters in plays, why wouldn’t they dress up to play Santa?
Yeah, I saw Santa with my two sisters at the Bullocks in Westwood Village when I was three and four. But it was my grandmother who took us. My mother didn’t drive, and my dad was always hella busy in December (he worked for the P.O.). I loved that Bullocks. I got my high school graduation dress there.
We didn’t go after that because my grandmother had a stroke when I was five, and she couldn’t drive anymore. I loved that we got those two visits, because I have two cool pictures with my sisters. My brother wasn’t born until I was five, so he wasn’t around to be in pics.
I was young enough that I think I was fooled into thinking it was some old guy being Santa. But looking at the photos years later, I’m now thinking it was probably a UCLA student (the campus was right across the street).
There was a small grocery store around the corner from where I grew up. At some point, after I was grown, a local man put up a covered stage in the back of the parking lot. Each year it would get decorated and he would play Santa in the evenings for a few weeks. We always took the nieces and nephews to see him. The parents would surreptitiously tell his helper the kids names and they would be so excited that Santa knew who they were. It would get somewhat annoying to me since my mother lived so close and the music and his amplified voice was very loud (HO HO HO!). But it was just part of Christmas for many years.
When I was a kid, Leonard’s Department store was where you went to see Santa. I’m sure we went several years, but I only remember one time - I think it was super crowded and we had to wait a long time
When I was taking belly dance in the 90s we did Christmas shows at the mall a couple of times. One year, we performed near Santa, and after the show we got pictures with him. I suspect his ho ho hoes were particularly happy that day
I don’t remember going to see Santa at a mall or anywhere else. There certainly weren’t any pictures of it.
I took my kids every year. The local-ish mall had a very good Santa that looked and acted the part very well.
With all the choices on the town poll I’m surprised there was no choice for township.
1950s Canada - Montreal and Toronto would have their Santa Claus parades (a week apart - most floats were transported by train to the other city). At the end of the parade, Santa would climb a ladder and enter the Eaton’s department store through a window, He was then ready for customers.
At some point, our family would visit Santa - after riding the miniature train. Then browse the toy department (which of course was on the same floor as Santa), before going to a nearby restaurant for hot chocolate…
That’s not so much a theme as a “feature wall” !
I was going to say cinnamon, but then I checked and sure enough, there’s already cinnamon in that “spiced” apple cider. So adding more might be too much.
I think I’d rather have a bit of brandy than vodka, though.
I watched the Charlie Brown Christmas the first time it was on! I was ten years old and so excited to see the Peanuts characters move. It’s the only Christmas special that talks about what Christmas is really all about. The Grinch comes close, and I love that show too, but it doesn’t quite get there, even with the fake Latin.
We just discovered that A Charlie Brown Christmas is on Apple+, and watched it this evening. It really is perfect end to end.
Star Wars Holiday Special AS LONG AS IT’S RIFFED.
Otherwise… Bah Humbug!
I haven’t seen most of those movies and so am not voting.
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas
Terry Pratchett’s “The Hogfather” followed by “The Muppet Christmas Carol.”
My favorite xmas special wasn’t listed (Die Hard).
Plain vodka. I have a problem with flavored vodkas. A friend used to buy them out of curiosity and when she hated them she’d give them to me. I finished every one, even the pink bubblegum vodka.
I can only conclude that people who are confusing movies with Christmas specials don’t know what a “special” is and thus had deprived childhoods.
It’s not a special if you didn’t see this:
