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 very year in late autumn, Eaton's windows assumed a festive air in the days leading up to Christmas. The tradition of holiday décor was well established by the mid-1920s, and seasonal store windows became a staple of Christmas in Toronto for the next seven decades.
For four or five weeks each year, families would crowd around the fantasy windows, moving eagerly from one to the next, savouring the three-dimensional stories featuring toys, humanistic animals, workshop elves or Santa Claus. At first, the emphasis was on fun, but by the mid-1940s, Biblical nativity scenes joined the Yuletide mix.
While their themes were generally non-commercial, the Christmas fantasy windows were designed to draw shoppers and their youngsters downtown – within easy reach of the revolving glass doors that led into the store and onward to the wonders of the toy department.
North Pole fantasies such as this 1964 Santa Chalet were non-commercial, focused on goodwill rather than product placement. |
