The Simple Pleasures
of Christmas in Denver,
Many Years Ago!

by Marjorie L. Sallee
(Kansas)

GOING TO SEE THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

One of the big events of the holiday season when I was a little girl in Denver, Colorado, many years ago, was getting to go downtown to see the Christmas decorations in the stores and also driving slowly past the big lighting display at Denver's City and County Building. During the midst of World War 2, these simple pleasures were about as good as we could enjoy for the rest of the year.

All of the department stores would put out Christmas merchandise and displays the day after Thanksgiving and not one minute before. It would have been unseemly to have Christmas items on display with the back-to-school merchandise, Halloween or even Thanksgiving treats. Each holiday had is won time, and merchants apparently didn't care to start any of them ahead of time. That would have been unthinkable.

My favorite store was always F.W. Woolworth because I could find something reasonably priced to give to my mother, grandmother, sisters and bachelor uncle. I always loved the smell of freshly-oiled floors as we walked in the door, and I always had to stand a few minutes near the piano in the music department where some nicely manicured young women or a grandmotherly appearing matron played the current hits so the customers would be interested in buying the sheet music. They always carried Blue Waltz perfume in such pretty blue bottles, and we knew our mother would love to have that on her dresser. Sometimes we even got to eat a meal in the sandwich shop there.

Oh, what a thrill I was to walk along Sixteenth Street and look at the window displays in the big department stores. Many were merchandized and would move realistically to the music. There was usually at least one or two skaters on a pond dancing to “Skater's Walts.” Another store might have a display of Santa Claus, Mrs. Santa, and the elves working busily in the workshop. The elves might pound on toys with little hammers or use tiny saw or huge needles to stitch up doll clothes, etc. Santa was always happy, and his body would shake from his hearty Ho Ho Hos! Sometimes on such cold days, we would steam up those windows with our breath as we stood close taking it all in.


At some point in the trip, we would stand in a long line of children waiting to see the “real “ Santa Claus so we could whisper only one or two special wishes into his ear. After we came off Santa;s la[, some nice assistant gave us a candy cane. Nice children didn't want to much. Santa was always a pleasant old gentleman, but we sort of feared him anyhow. He had the power to withhold treats from naughty children. We hoped we were good enough to get those special toys we had requested.

The last stop was always the City and county Building which was always lit up top to bottom in the most beautiful and awesome lighting displays of that era. Somewhere on the building there would be a replica of Santa aloft on his magical sleigh with eight reindeer (Rudolph hadn't been invented yet). And the focal point of the display right in the center if the entry area was a huge nativity scene. Christmas was always associated with the Christ child, Mary And Joseph. How could you possibly have Christmas without them? There were also angels and shepherds on display. Traffic inched by just a few miles an hour, and I just wished we could go around and around that black to see it again and again. The light were just breath-taking, and they would be gone for another whole year after January 1st.

Today's children who have so many more material things and see such marvelous sights almost daily would probably be bored with the things that brought us such great joy. But looking back those were the most wonderful experiences that a little child could have.