Here We Are Again!

That greeting rang from the stages of British theatres on Boxing Day evenings from the late Georgian to the early Elizabethan eras, with echoes being heard even in some places today.  And with that cry, and the cheer that went up from the audience, the high jinks, acrobatics and tricks of the Harlequinade and Panto season began.

An excited audience awaits the beginning of
the Panto on December 26, 1826.  This satirical
print is by Isaac Robert Cruikshank, brother of
the better known illustrator George Cruikshank.

British Museum Collection

It was first given by Joseph Grimaldi at Drury Lane in 1799 as he established himself as the most popular Clown in London.  In those days the Harlequinade was the heart of what we call today Christmas Pantomime.  The story leading up to it could be from a fairy tale, a popular novel, a Shakespearean play or just some fanciful tale - I have a wonderful 1829 playbill from Drury Lane that advertises The Queen Bee or Harlequin & the Fairy Hive:  now that's a story I've always wondered about. The point was to have the Good Fairy (Fairy Faithful, Fairy Bluebell etc.) defeat the Demon (of Discord, Discontent et al) wave her wand and give the Lover the magic bat that would transform them all into Harlequin, Columbine, Pantaloon, the Dandy and Clown and set them off chasing, tumbling and racing across the stage.  To thwart Pantaloon and assist the lovers Clown would dress up as an old lady, steal sausages, mock the gentry, elude policemen and create general havoc.  And Grimaldi introduced singalongs encouraging his audience to give him tag lines and then showing horror when their responses were less than polite.

Chances are that if he wandered into the New Theatre in Wimbledon to see Cinderella this Christmastide Grimaldi would have difficulty recognizing it as the entertainment he knew.  Over the years Panto changed and developed - sometimes for the better, often for the worse.  Gradually the fairy tale element took over and Panto became an excuse for extravaganzas with ballets, chorus girls, parades and music hall comedy.  The Dame, the Principal Boy, the Double Act, the Ghost scene, the sing-along and the Grand Transformation all had their roots in Georgian pantomime but Harlequin and Clown faded not just into the background but eventually from the stage.

Joseph Grimaldi owned and sign this copy of Tegg's
Prime Song Book with vignettes by Thomas Rowlandson.

Princeton University Library

Sadly the Harlequinade didn't go out with an appropriate bang of a slapstick but whimpered along until as late as 1953 when Harlequin and Columbine appeared, rather apologetically, in the annual Panto at the Palladium.  Their only task was to dance a twee pas de deux in the Transformation scene.  It was a long way from that excited cry of "Here we are again!"

Fortunately the Harlequinade tradition was captured by the pens of many writers and illustrators.  In 1838 Charles Dickens took a rather weighty manuscript left by Grimaldi and edited it under the pseudonym "Boz".  The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi was published later that year as a two volume set with illustrations by George Cruickshank.  Dickens, in words, and Cruickshank, in drawings, recorded scenes that became the foundations of a treasured British Christmas tradition.

But they were not alone - at Panto time the illustrated periodicals of the time were filled with items and drawings hinting at what was to be expected at Drury Lane, Sadler's Wells, Covent Garden, the Haymarket and a myriad of places of entertainment for Christmastide.  When the pen was being held by "Alfred Crowquill" the illustrations were often of a satirical nature as he poked fun at the old traditions.   The pseudonym is somewhat odd as it was used jointly by two brothers:  Alfred Henry Forrester (1804-72) and his older brother Charles Robert Forrester (1803-50).  Alfred specialized in witty sketches for Comic Arithmetic, Punch and The Illustrated London News.  By the end of 1843, he had apparently ceased to publish caricatures under this pseudonym, leaving it for the exclusive use of his older brother.   His pantomime sketches with humorous verses beneath (as seen in The Illustrated London News during the Christmas season of that year and later published in book form in 1826) must have been among his last graphic works placed before the public under that nom de plume.

Plagued by ill health, exhaustion, drink and old injuries Grimaldi retired from the stage the same year that Crowquill penned his tongue-in-cheek series.  In 1847, ten year's after Grimaldi's death,  the great pantomime author J. R. Planché decried, in rhyme, the decline of Clown and his antics:

Poor Arlechino took a prance
To merry England via France;
Came just in Christmas-pudding time,
And welcomed was by Pantomime.
But Pantomime's best days are fled:
Grimaldi, Barnes, Bologna* - dead!

* Along with Grimaldi's Clown, James Barnes as Pantaloon and Jack Bologna as Harlequin were the stars of Georgian Pantomime.

December 30 - 1919: Lincoln's Inn in London, England, UK admits its first female bar student

Simple Gifts - Part IV

This final gift I've left to unwrap until Christmas Eve is from R. O. Blechman himself.

In his distinctive style that is well known from The New Yorker,  Esquire, Punch, commercials and books he puts a sardonic, modern twist on the journey to Bethlehem.   Would this be the way it would really be for a man and his pregnant wife seeking a place to lay their heads in our modern world? 

As I said at the beginning of this series of posts I'm at a loss to understand why this gentle little special has not reappeared more often.  But perhaps it is better not to wonder but to simply repeat what Coleen Dewhurst says:

The failure to recognize a gift when it is offered to us shows us something within ourselves.  Let us leave that something open.  Let's us make room at the inn.

Thanking you for sharing this time with me and wishing you a Christmas of simple gifts richly bestowed and warmly received.

December 24 -  1955: NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.

Simple Gifts - Part III

The next two gifts are again studies in contrast from the early years of the 20th century.

The Great 1914-1919 War was to define the century and the aftermath resounds to this day.  One of the events of the first year of that conflict, never mentioned in the history books when I was in school, was what became known as the Christmas Truce of 1914.  It is only in recent years that it has become an iconic moment in that war to end wars.  The first time I heard about it was in Joan Littlewood's Oh What A Lovely War when it was staged in Toronto in the 1960s.  Her musical entertainment was based on a radio series by Charles Chilton which was the catalyst for a more critical view of that monumental waste of a generation - a bitter lesson in hindsight at its finest.

Now that spontaneous fraternization of the two sides along the front on December 24-26, 2014 has been marked in stories, songs, a movie, an opera and just this year a highly controversial ad campaign in Great Britain.

James McMullen illustrated this first hand account, from a letter to his mother by Captain Sir Edward Hulse, of one of the remarkable truce in his signature "high focus" style.

Equally recognizable is the style of Fontaine Fox in this tribute to his Toonerville Folks - a regular feature in the Funnies from 1908 until 1955.   Toonerville was the quintessential American hinterland between the urban and the rural that existed until urban sprawl became the norm.    Fox captured the everyday adventures of Skipper and his Trolly that met all the trains with an loving if slightly satirical eye.  And in this little vignette he captures the hustle and bustle of the seasons perfectly.

A left click on the Gift Tag will open the last gift:

December 19 - 1924: The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.

Simple Gifts - Part II

Though they could not be more different the next two gifts that R.O. Blechman offers us share a common theme:  memory.  One is written looking at the past, the other writing of the present before it becomes the past.  One is born out of a life of poverty, the other of privilege.  Both are rich in language and perhaps richer in a sense of family - again in two very different ways.

In the wake of an attempt to turn the book into a play that put it, briefly, back in the spotlight I recently reread Moss Hart's Act One. When it was first published in 1959 I found the story of his early life in the tenements of New York difficult and unsettling reading and put the book aside unfinished.  Fifty-odd years later I still found the story of his early years unsettling but myself better equipped to understand it.  His writing is witty and, if at times slightly romantic, unsentimental.   I only wish he had lived to give us Act Two and Three.

This segment, narrated by José Ferrar, mixes archival photographs of New York of the time (1910s) with still shots of the characters that make up Hart's family.  An ingenuous way to present this gift of memory.

Christmas could not have been more different than as recorded by the eleven year old Teddy Roosevelt in 1869.  I particularly enjoyed that very matter-of-fact last sentence. Illustrator Chas. B. Slackman and actor Dean Wareham take us into the pages of the young man's personal diary for another snapshot in time.

A left click on the Gift Tag will open the next gifts:

December 13 -1974:  Malta becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.

A Christmas Bouquet - Part I

In the late 1970s early 1980s I was addicted to catalogue shopping - Trifles, Horchow, Neiman-Marcus and Bloomingdale's catalogues arrived monthly.  As Christmastide approached it became an avalanche of marvelous, intriguing, glitzy and Christmasy things you just couldn't live without.  For a long while I had a complete collection of NM Christmas Books from 1979 to 2010 however I was convinced to recycle them in one of our moves - O foolish man!

The first Neiman-Marcus Christmas Book I
received in the post in 1979. I was hooked
on catalogue shopping for years afterwards.

But I digress.  One of the great pleasures for this poor boy living in the deepest darkest suburbs of Ottawa was discovering the wondrous treasures that, if available in Canada, certainly weren't available here in my particular neck of the backwoods.  Some totally useless - I recall purchasing a brush with a silver-plated handle for cleaning champagne flutes as a gift for a friend and a gold-plated toothbrush for another - others of a more lasting value - an antique style brass razor which is still used to this day.  The one thing that could be guaranteed was that that gifts would be different and chances of duplication slim.  And another of the  pleasures was that crowds and stores could be avoided during the seasonal rush - a phone call to the always pleasant sales people and a week or two later the postman would be at the door.  And often items would be ordered from catalogues earlier in the year - one year I had my Christmas shopping completed by August.

This year as we trimmed our tree I was reminded of how many of our decorations came from those catalogues, particularly the "collectibles".  N-M accounts for the 30 silver balls that we began collecting in 1979 and the charming felt mice that our Bundnie use to love; Horchow for the Russian fairy tale enameled porcelain roundels; and Bloomingdales for the Wedgwood Jasper ornaments and the Towle silver floral medallions.  Because our tree is, perforce, not a large one these days we have chosen to not include the Wedgwood or Russian ornaments this time around but this year the Floral medallions were given their place.

It was in their 1983 catalogue that Bloomingdale's announced that Towle, the New England silversmith, had issued the first in a Limited series of ten floral creations for the Yuletide season.   And thus began a new tradition in our house.

It has proven difficult to take clear photos of the medallions - silver, particularly recently polished silver - reflects everything including the camera lens.  However I thought I'd capture what I could of the remarkable artistry that went into their creation as well as the legends behind their association with Christmas.

1983 - The Christmas Rose

A rollover with your mouse will show the delicate work on the back of the ornament.

Roses have always had a place in Christian iconography particularly as a symbol of the Virgin Mary and as the sign of a miracle.  During medieval times the red rose and its thorny stem became associated with the Passion of Christ.

However what we call the Christmas Rose (Hellebore niger) is not a member of the rose family but is an evergreen flowering plant known for its winter hardiness.   It bears a white flower in late December/early January which lasts well into the coldest days of winter.  As the flower ages it often turns a pale pink. 

But why is it called the Christmas Rose?  Perhaps because it normally bloomed by Christmas Day on the Julian Calendar (January 7 on our Gregorian Calendar).   Also according to a popular legend that on the first Christmas as the shepherds made their way to the manager, the small sister of a shepherd tarried behind the others, playing in the snow.   When she arrived at the stable the shepherds had given their homage to the Infant and she had no gift to give.  She began to cry and and where her tears fell on the snow beautiful white flowers sprang up.  Her tears turned to joy and she gathered the flowers up and gave them to the Christ Child. The baby and his mother smiled at her and she left high of heart and told everyone of the birth of the baby Jesus.

 

1984 - Hawthorn 

A rollover with your mouse will show the delicate work on the back of the ornament.

The Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) has been considered a sacred tree since the time of the early Greeks and was revered for both its spiritual and medicinal properties by the Roman, the Celts , the Chinese and North American First Nations.  For the Romans and the Greeks it was linked to hope, good fortune, marriage and childbirth. Garlands of hawthorn leaves adorned bridal parties, processions were lit by hawthorn torches and leaves were put in the cradles of Roman babies to ensure good fortune.   For the Celtic peoples the hawthorn was known to be the favourite abode of the fairy folk and hawthorn groves were often the site of altars to the old gods.

It is said that during the Flight into Egypt Joseph  left the sleeping Mary and Jesus to find water and food.  Seeing Herod's men approaching the magpies gathered boughs of hawthorn to cover the sleeping mother and child and protect them from their enemies.

It was also believed that the Crown of Thorns was made from hawthorn and this led to its close association with death in Medieval times.  It was consider a sign of impending death to bring hawthorn into a house, a superstition that is still believed in some parts of England.  It was also believed that when Joseph of Arimathea came to evangelize England he had with him a staff made from the wood of the tree that had been used for that painful cornet.  On his journey he stopped on Wearyall Hill in the area of Glastonbury and when he lay down to rest pushed his staff into the ground.  When he awoke he found it had taken root, begun to grow and blossom.  He left it there and every Christmas and Spring the hawthorn sets forth buds and blossoms.

The story is told that during the Civil War a puritan tried to cut it down but was blinded by a splinter of wood before he could complete his task.*  The truth is that it was uprooted and burned during the time of the Commonwealth as a relic of heathen superstition but one of its castaway fragments - pilgrims were forever taking souvenir cuttings - found its way back to Glastonbury and to this day still blooms on Christmas Eve.  Each year a sprig of thorn is cut, by the local Anglican vicar and the eldest child from St John's School, and sent to the Queen.

*Sadly in 2010 it appears that vandals were able to accomplish what that unknown puritan could not.  On December 9th of that year the branches of the iconic tree were deliberately cut off.  When new shoots appeared the following year they were also removed in the dark of night.  And again in 2012 a newly grafted sapling was destroyed.  The current Glastonbury  Holy Thorn was propagated by grafting a cutting onto a common blackthorn tree. 

December 12 -  Paula Ackerman, the first woman appointed to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leads the congregation in her first services.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town 1953 - V

As mentioned in previous year's the Eaton's parade was a Christmas highlight in Toronto, Winnpeg and Montreal.  Winnipeg had their own stock of floats and costumes but the Monday after the Toronto parade (Sunday was a day of rest at Eaton's)  flatbed and freight cars were loaded and the entire parade was taken by rail to Montreal.  After FLQ bomb threats in 1969 Eaton's cancelled the Montreal parade citing security concerns.  It was another 27 years before Santa would be seen riding down rue Sainte Catherine but in 1995 local business people revived the tradition.  The parade is now in it's twentieth consecutive year and as popular as ever.

Seven years before Lindbergh landed in Paris Eaton's Santa Claus made the trip from the North Pole to Toronto's Leaside Areodrome on Eglinton Avenue in the far north-west of the city.   The air field  had been used for fighter pilot training but by 1919 was serving more commercial purposes.  That was also the year of the never to be repeated lions versus horses debacle.  In future parades Santa would ride over rooftops but only in in a sleigh with eight tiny reindeer.

Sainte Catherine Street West

Sainte Catherine Street West

This year's colouring book has brought out some tidbits from friends who recall those glorious parades of yore.  Judy - who you may remember appeared in many of the parades - remembers having a tête-à-tête with Santa behind the scenes before he mounted his throne in Toyland.  And Vicki tells me that her husband's Great Uncle not only worked on the floats as a carpenter but one year was one of the two Santas in the parade.

Two Santas?  Yes there were always two Santas - the one we saw cheerily waving at us and wishing us a Merry Christmas and another hidden in a car that followed behind with blacked out windows.  I guess they had learned from Miracle on 34th Street to always have a jolly old man in reserve.  I wonder just how they would have made the switch?

The moment we all had waited for - oh sure seeing Punkinhead, Cinderella and Mother Goose had been a pretty big deal but Santa!  Now that was the real thing!  That's why we had lined up in the early hours of the morning to get a good curb seat and endured the cold, sometimes snow and once the rain.   Christmas had now begun.

And it was off to Toyland - to the little railway that took you through a magic forest, the fish pond, a glimpse into Punkinhead's den and finally snaking through the candy cane ropes to meet up with the big man himself.  A few whispered words, an assurance that all would be well and a reminder to tune in to CFRB and it was over for another year.  Time to head over to Diana Sweets for a hot chocolate and a sticky bun.

The Archives of Ontario have the 1953 Parade on video - just in case you want to see how you're colouring scheme compared to the real one.  I always thought the icy floats looked better crayoned pink or blue - even at 7 I had the soul of an artiste.

November 27 - 1895: At the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize.

Santa Claus Comes to Town 1953 - III

Every year there were surprises - new floats, new clowns (though the handwalkers were always my favourtes - how did they do it all that way?) but there were certain givens. I mean you just knew that Cinderella would be in the parade; last year she was in her pumpkin coach so there was a bit of a surprise this year she arrived perched on her slipper - and this was long before Priscilla Queen of the Desert!

From that one wagon with Santa and all the little Eatons in 1905 the parade has expanded to over 25 animated floats.  That handful of Eaton's employees (proudly declaring themselves Eatonians) in those first years has grown to a total of 2000 marchers - all volunteers.  Many are children from Toronto schools who don't seem to mind the early morning start or, in some years, the cold Canadian weather.  And the parade route has gradually expanded and now is over 6 kilometers long they have a bit of a way to go before they match that 48 kilometer, two day march from Newmarket to Union Station in the early 1900s.

Horse or man power were the main methods of propelling the floats through the city streets in those early years - it must have appeared a trifle strange to have the eight reindeer pulled along by a team of horses but then suspension of disbelief is always important at Christmas.  In 1919 the handlers for the team pulling Santa's float were dressed as lions - unfortunately this spooked the horses and they had to jettison the elaborate costumes.

When I was a young 'un the floats were pulled by bright red tractors proudly bearing the name of Massey Ferguson - the premiere maker of farm equipment in Canada.  Today the website proclaims that KIA is the official vehicle of the parade and some very sleek mini-SUVs pull the floats. 

Though traditionally the floats featured nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters any theme from childhood was fair game for the creative design teams that worked on the parade.  Many of today's floats have a more commercial aspect and may feature Barbie, Ronald McDonald and even Swarovski crystal.

And turning the pages leads us to the next colourful floats ....

November 22 - 1935:  The China Clipper, the first plane to offer commercial transpacific air service, takes off from Alameda, California, for its first commercial flight. It reaches its destination, Manila, a week later.

Santa Claus Comes to Town - 1953 - Part II

In November 2012 I did get as far as this in the colouring book - hey I'm not a very fast reader okay! 

I've been a little late in getting to work on my Santa Claus colouring book but I've had a bit of a time finding a good old fashioned box of crayons. These days they have colours like Fairy Princess Blue and Little Girl Pink - I mean come on guys I want a box of crayons not clothes from the GAP!!!!

But here I am, crayons at the ready - let the parade begin!

I seem to recall that the parade always began with the Toronto Police Band - not a Metro entity in those days - playing "Jingle Bells". On can only think that after 2 hours of that cheerful little ditty that a dash to the Pilot Tavern was more favoured than dashing through any snow.

First appearing in the Toronto Parade in 1947 Punkinhead became a fixture for the next two decades.  He was the creation of Charles Thorson, one of the early Disney animators, who hailed from Winnipeg.  Thorson created Bugs Bunny amongst other famous cartoon characters, Patricia Atchison tells us the origins of the wool-haired bear and his colourful creator.  Note that even back then the marketing people were busy and any true bloody Canadian kid has hounded their parents into buying them a Punkinhead doll, watch, puppet, bedside lamp or, for the real die-hard Punkinhead aficionado, PJs.   As I recall the books were often free as gifts at the Punkinhead Fish Pond or as you disembarked from the Punkinhead Express that took you on a tour of Toyland.

One can only hope that the mermaids, mermen and good King Nepture himself were all well insulated under their scales and tails.  Taking into consideration the cold that could hit the Queen's City in the middle of November the costumes were made one size larger so that they could be worn over warm winter woolies.

The children of Eaton's employees and students selected from various schools appeared on the floats as flowers, fairies, elves and Snow White's seven.  If you appeared in the parade you had to endure fittings, some rehearsing and showing up at the Christie Pits marshaling area at 0630 on parade morning.   Over the years thousands of children were more than happy to do exactly that for the honour of welcoming Santa to town.

So let's flip the pages and see who shows up next.

November 21 - 1386: Timur of Samarkand captures and sacks the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, taking King Bagrat V of Georgia captive.

Santa Claus Comes to Town 1953 - Part 1

This was originally posted on November 24, 2012 and was the first in a series of five or six uncompleted posts that were intended to thumb through the Eaton's Santa Claus Parade Colouring Book from 1953. I'm reposting it as an introduction to the series - which I am finally getting to finish off. Trying to win some points from Santa?

 I'm not sure why I thought they were holding the annual Santa Claus Parade in Toronto early these days but the date in mid-November struck me as strange until I read a posting on JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium. A right click on the advertisement for the 1918 edition of the parade will take you to his Notes on a parade that came right on the heels of the Armistice celebrations the week before. Santa was particularly welcome that year - but not as welcome as the boys who returned home in the weeks that followed.

So once again last weekend (November 15) as he has for the past 109 years, Santa made his way through the streets of Toronto.  His route took him along a familiar path - though he no longer stops at his old home at Eaton's - lined with cheering children and a good many nostalgic adults.   And many of the old favourites that most of us remember from our childhood were there but this year was not time-warp parade - there was an APP to follow Santa's progress, a Santa Cam that took pictures of the kids following the Big Guy's float and posted them on a website for download and Celebrity Clowns carried giant frames and invited kids to get behind the frame with them to snap photos with their smart phones or cameras.

Mind you we had technology in 1953 that was nothing to sneer at:  CFRB had daily dinner time radio broadcasts leading up to the parade, CBC televised it locally (okay so these days it's broadcast worldwide) and we had the annual colouring book that any true aficionado had ordered, along with a new box of crayolas, weeks before from Eaton's.

So in the spirit of 1953 here's two links (Part I  -  Part II) to a film made of that transmission (it was distributed to schools in the more remote areas of the country so children everywhere could welcome Santa to town.)  A bonus - for me at least - is one of those voices that I grew up with - Byng Whittaker reading 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

Whittaker was the host of The Small Types Club,  a lunch hour children's program ( we all went home for lunch in those days) - introduced by The Teddy Bears' Picnic he'd read us stories as we munched our egg-salad sandwiches and slurped our tomato soup.  And when Byng said, “Out to play, back into bed for a nap, off to school or whatever mother tells you.  Now sssssscoot!” we knew it’s time to go.

And of course there was that colouring book.  I'm pretty certain I had mine and no doubt used a fine design sense to stay between the lines and give vibrant colour to the floats, clowns and bands.   |'m not sure if I would have mutilated the book by cutting out the Punkinhead puppet - after all I had a Punkinhead doll and a Punkinhead puppet - yes even then parents gave into to advertising pressure.

Over the next few days I'll be flipping through the pages of that 1953 colouring book - secretly wishing I had my box of crayolas to fill in the white with all the colours that I imagine delighted me when I finally had the chance to see them on the big parade day.

In previous years I've thumbed through the pages of the 1951 and 1952 colouring books - all of which were at one time available on the Archives of Ontario website for downloading and colouring.  I say "at one time" because it appears they have been removed along with much of the Eaton's Christmas memorabilia.

So let's flip to the first pages right now.

19 November - 1695: Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho.

Santa Comes to Town

.... for the 110th year.

I wasn't surprised to see that figure in the banner at the top of this year's Toronto Santa Claus Parade website.  For several years I wrote about the Parade and traced some of its history from when, in 1905,  Santa Claus arrived at Union Station and rode with the Eaton family to father Timothy's emporium.  For the next 77 years the Eaton Company proudly sponsored Santa's arrival in Toronto until in 1982 the financially troubled company could no longer afford to justify or manage the expense.   At that point it looked like Santa's only appearance in the city would be rather pathetic photo ops at local malls.

In 1913 eight reindeer were brought in from Labrador by boat and train  to "pull" Santa's sleigh.  
They were so badly spooked by the crowds and the noise that they weren't used in subsequent years.

However several people decided that something that was so much a tradition of Toronto life was not to be let go so easily.  Within days of the announcement from Eaton's Ron Barbaro and George Cohon formed an not-for-profit organization to find sponsorship and financing for the parade.  They rounded up 20 companies willing to sponsor floats and film director Norman Jewison came on board and arranged for television rights to assist in covering parade costs.  The following year a troupe of sixty celebrity clowns joined the parade as anonymous donors to assist with financing and help warm up the crowds along the parade route.  This year that number had grown to 200 and the parade will be broadcast around the world.

For some reason, known only to the parade planners, in 1919 Santa arrived at Eaton's
on a gigantic Silver Fish??? This shot is on Albert St behind the Old City Hall.

urbantoronto.ca archives

The Fish was to appear also in 1923 if the date on this photo is correct;  Santa had to clamber up two ladders
- no doubt cursing all the way - to reach the window into Toyland.  Being that Timothy Eaton was
tea-total it's doubtful that there was a stiff drink waiting for him at the end of the climb.

There are several silent movies of those early parades on YouTube including a repeat of Santa on a Fish in 1929.  The title card tell us that it's a sil'vry Arctic fish - which I guess explains it.  However by 1931 he was arriving in a more traditional manner and to the best of my knowledge in subsequent years he always arrived in a sleigh pulled by eight (papier-maché) prancing reindeer.

Happily the parade has continued  one of the great traditions of the old parade has disappeared:  the Santa Claus Parade Colouring Book*.   In previous years I have posted the first two from 1951 and 1952  and in looking over past entries realized I had started a series on the 1953 edition in 2012.  Somehow or other it got waylaid - life, work, laziness - and was never completed.  Well we should never "leave undone those things which we ought to have done" so I've decide to begin by reposting those first entries from 2012 and continue on thumbing through the memory pages in the next few days.

....   continued here.

*  The Santa Clause Parade website did provide a link to the replica of the 1952 colour book though the parade has changed mightily since there.

 November 20 - 1917: Ukraine is declared a republic.

As she has done for almost a thousand years if not longer, tonight La Befana will mount her broomstick and fly from house to house in Italy and in Italian households all over the world.  The good will be, justly, rewarded with sweets, fruits and perhaps a small gift; the bad will reap the rewards of their badness - a lump of coal or in some households a turnip.

Given the onslaught of Halloween - a holiday unknown in Italy until a decade ago - and the appearance of Babo Natale (Santa Claus) there is a chance that this lovely and age old tradition will disappear before the forces of marketing.  However this little vignette on YouTube from Walks of Italy gives me some assurance that she will not go the way of the zampognari or shepherds who would come down from the mountains and serenade Romans with the bagpipe carols.  Let's hope that when Beatrice wakes up tomorrow there will be both "sweet carbone" and an extra treat for being a good girl and sharing her traditions with us.

I've written extensively in the past about the stories - there are several versions of her history - and celebration of La Befana.  As I said last year each story enriches both the old lady and the traditions surrounding her.  If you haven't read them before do take a look; if you have, well a second look does not harm.

January 2008 - An Italian Christmas Tradition - La Befana 
January 2009 - Ephipania II
January 2011 - Viva La Befana! La Befana!
January 2012 -  The Flight of La Befana


To all my loved ones in Italy - don't forget a glass of warming wine and a biscotti will help the old lady on her way in the cold night.  And my hope is that when you wake in the morning La Befana will have left your stockings full of good things and for that once or twice that you just may have been less than good a lump of carbonne but like Beatrice carbonne dolci to sweeten the experience. 

Viva la Befana! Viva!



December 5 - 1974: Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59 °F (+15 °C) recorded at Vanda Station.

As the Big Night Approaches

As we approach Christmas Eve I am reminded of what this night was like when I was a child.  Back in the 50s every night in December on CFRB, after the news and after Gordan Sinclair had reminded us of the evils of fluoride and the stupidity of the current Mayor and City Councillors of Toronto (plus ça change!) we would spend five minutes with Santa Claus.

On Christmas Eve he would tell us about his upcoming journey around the world - I was to discover later that it was the voice of Stan Francis, as "The Professor" he  had a popular children's after-school TV programme in the 60s.  He also did the voice of Santa on the well-known Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer animation.  I was not the only one who thought that Stan was exactly what Santa sounded like.

Now I have never been good at saying "goodbye" and especially when it came to Santa who had spoken directly to me every night for almost a month.  Already at 6 and 7 I had become a bit of a drama queen  actor and the hysteria was a sight to behold.   My Irish heritage was in full flight as I keened the departure of the Jolly Old Man, forgetting that he was going to drop off that "Mickey Mouse Playhouse Theatre" (didn't I tell you I was dramatically inclined?) that I had seen at Simpson's Toyland three weeks before.  How my patient parents put up with the drama I will never know - their crowns in heaven must be shining bright!

There has been much - needless to my mind - talk about Santa over the past few weeks with statements made from all sides that boggle even the average mind.  However that is not for me to go into at this point.  My Santa - the one who came down the chimney, ate those cookies, drank that milk and left presents - was straight out of Thomas Nast.  And whatever form your Santa took and whatever he - or she for that matter - may have looked like I can only hope you were saddened by his departure for the season but even more gladdened by the stop he made at your home on so many Christmas Eves.

In the mean time:  Merry Christmas to all; and to all a good night!

24 December - 1294: Pope Boniface VIII is elected Pope, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned.