As appeared in the Pioneer Press in 1951:
“The good city of St. Paul became the Christmas City of the nation.
Christmas is not just a “day” in St. Paul. Nor is it merely a week or the traditional twelve days. Early in November, store windows begin to display Christmas ‘suggestions’. Christmas tree ornaments appear on the counters of ‘dime’ stores. The familiar tinkle of the Salvation Army bells is heard on the street corners downtown.
About the tenth of November, Santa Claus arrives in St. Paul and is paraded through the loop by the Mayor and other city officials, attended by Boy Scouts and high school bands. And St. Paul city firemen begin their annual self-assigned task of repairing and repainting broken and discarded toys for distribution among the underprivileged boys and girls of the city.
Christmas in St. Paul is a giant Christmas tree in Victory Square or Rice Park, a tree so huge that it takes more than 1,000 bulbs to light it. It is the streets festooned with red and green garlands. It is the happy faces of children as they jam the store aisles in search for a present for mom and dad. It is the Mayor of the city giving a party for 7,000 children in the city auditorium, with a gift for each child. It is members of the Civic Opera caroling in hospitals and homes for the aged. It is the Knights of Columbus distributing gifts at the orphanages. It is mistletoe dances and high school cantatas and Sunday school parties. And on Christmas Eve, it is the hush of candlelight services and Midnight Mass.”
Fr. Steve Adrian
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