 Macy's Store in New York claims to be the first store to have Santa visit them in 1861/1862. This was only a few years after the store was founded. From 1924, the arrival of Santa became the finale of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. The Macy's Santa became extra famous after being in 1947 film Miracle of 34th Street.
James Wood Parkinson from Philadelphia is sometimes said to have been the first person to have Santa visit their store. In the 1840s Santa entertained people visiting his confectionary shop.
 The person we know to be 'one of Santa's helpers' was James Edgar who portrayed Santa in his dry goods store in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1890. James Edgar was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1843 and moved to Brockton in 1878. In the years before he started playing Santa, he'd been running July 4th picnics for several thousand local children and would dress up as different figures at the picnics. Soon after the first appearance of Santa in his store, children from Boston and even New York were travelling to see him!
By the 1920s, the Department Store Santa had become a fixture in the US and then throughout the world. |
