[Santa Barry]

I found this in an article about the founder of Macy's, Rowland Hussey Macy, at Investors.com about how Macy made his store a success. I hadn't heard about this part before. At least not this early.

Like any creative writer, Macy knew he had to freshen up his message to sustain consumer interest."He experimented and tried things," said Rutan. "He knew he had to change things often."

He even tried ads in poetry form. That's how the tradition of Santa Claus coming to Macy's at Christmas season started, says Rutan.

Macy put a poem in the paper in 1862 and talked about how Santa visited Macy's with lots of gifts for consumers to buy.

"The poem captured the imagination of the shoppers and their families," said Rutan. "The kids were dragging their folks to Macy's looking for Santa."

The next year, Macy backed up the poem by having Santa come to Macy's at holiday time. He was the first merchant in New York to adopt this practice.

So this happened during the Civil War? If I remember correctly, (and this seldom happens), I thought the earliest store anywhere to use Santa was well after the Civil War. Late 1800's? Can any Santa historians set me straight here?

The complete article can be found at: http://www.investors...;issue=20070703

[Santa Rielly]

Santa Barry, on Jul 3 2007, 11:51 PM, said:

I found this in an article about the founder of Macy's, Rowland Hussey Macy, at Investors.com about how Macy made his store a success. I hadn't heard about this part before. At least not this early.

Like any creative writer, Macy knew he had to freshen up his message to sustain consumer interest."He experimented and tried things," said Rutan. "He knew he had to change things often."

He even tried ads in poetry form. That's how the tradition of Santa Claus coming to Macy's at Christmas season started, says Rutan.

Macy put a poem in the paper in 1862 and talked about how Santa visited Macy's with lots of gifts for consumers to buy.

"The poem captured the imagination of the shoppers and their families," said Rutan. "The kids were dragging their folks to Macy's looking for Santa."

The next year, Macy backed up the poem by having Santa come to Macy's at holiday time. He was the first merchant in New York to adopt this practice.

So this happened during the Civil War? If I remember correctly, (and this seldom happens), I thought the earliest store anywhere to use Santa was well after the Civil War. Late 1800's? Can any Santa historians set me straight here?

The complete article can be found at: http://www.investors...;issue=20070703

I am not an historian, but here are a few bits on the subject that I have gathered.

During the American Civil War (1861 to 1865), Harper's Weekly published an image of Santa on the cover on January 3, 1863. At first clance it looks like Santa is demonstrating a puppet of sorts. However, if you look more closely it is a bit more sinister. :blink:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/1863_harpers.jpg

The image was drawn by Thomas Nast best known for this image of Saint Nick:
http://stnicholas.kids.us/stnic/images/nast.jpg

In 1841 J.W. Parkinson a Philadelphia merchant, hired an actor to dress up in Kris Kringle robes and climb the chimney of his store.

The first Macy's Santa was in 1870.

[Merry Sage]

I love the Thomas Nast drawing. It really captures the image of the "jolly old elf".

[Santa Barry]

Santa Rielly, on Jul 4 2007, 07:36 AM, said:

I am not an historian, but here are a few bits on the subject that I have gathered.

[snip]

The first Macy's Santa was in 1870.

Now that's more along what I was thinking. Well after the war. Of course I was remembering 1880's or so, but still, the article I found is putting the first Macy's Santa at 1863.

When was the first appearance of a Santa in ANY store? I was pretty sure it was after the Civil War. It makes it easier for me to remember if I reference most of my 19th century history in relation to the war because I used to do Civil War reenacting. (I can remember 1861-1865.) That's why when I saw the article it just didn't jive with what I was remembering.

Anyway, I think the article is putting Macy's Santa in store appearance not only before what I remember it to be (whatever that's worth), but also well before anybody else's.

[Elf Without Jingles]

Welcome aboard, Santa Barry. This ol' Elf Without Jingles loves Macy*s, too. I rarely, if ever, visit today's Macy*s Santaland --- mostly because he does a little bit too much in terms of sticking to the script, if you will. Nevertheless, it's been a while since I last personally greeted Macy*s Santa, but I know how much of a Legend he is both here in New York and throughout the world.

By the way, in case our members are interested, with the changing of the parent company's corporate name from Federated Department Stores to simply Macy*s Inc., the Special Events Division under Executive Vice-President and Executive Producer Robin Hall now once more becomes Macy*s Television, and will accordingly once again produce the Macy*s Thanksgiving Day Parade alongside Brad Lachman Productions in association with NBC Universal Television Studios.

Thought you'd like to know.

Santa Richard

[Santa Sean]

Santa Rielly, on Jul 4 2007, 10:36 AM, said:

The image was drawn by Thomas Nast best known for this image of Saint Nick:
http://stnicholas.kids.us/stnic/images/nast.jpg

I recently did a image search on that picture and found several versions of it

personally i don't like this version:
http://adultthought.ucsd.edu/color_nast_image.jpg

http://cartoons.osu.edu/nast/images/santa_claus100.jpg

http://www.kriss-kringle.com/images/santa_photos/santa_nast_color_100504.jpg

[Santa Sean]

I also found this one:

http://www.santalady.com/cfolder/sc10.jpg

[Santa TJS]

Norman Rockwell did some fine Santa illustrations for the old Saturday Evening Post over the years. I have several of his books, many fine depictions of Santa through the years.