The black-and-white images are a reminder that the holiday has always united the community in goodwill.
A view of Main Street, captured in 1962, shows the thoroughfare dressed up with large glowing candles attached to street lights.
The red candles with while flames lined the street as shoppers slipped into stores and crowds gathered in front of the Rike’s Christmas windows.
Those mesmerizing window displays date back to 1943, when the National Cash Register Co. placed five scenes from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in their New York City office windows.
In 1945, Frederick H. Rike, owner of Dayton’s Rike-Kumler company, successfully moved the display into the windows of his department store at Second and Main streets for all to enjoy.
Visiting the windows became a holiday tradition for many Miami Valley families over the decades. The sidewalks around the store overflowed with families gazing at the cheerful characters inside the festive scenes.
Above their heads Santa Claus, waving from a sleigh piled high with toys, a tricycle and a Radio Flyer wagon, was pulled by 7 pairs of reindeer. At night the illuminated scene, flying across the side of the building, could be seen from blocks away.
In another photograph, twinkling lights, captured on film, are reflected in windows over-looking a downtown scene where diners are headed out for special holiday treats at the King Cole restaurant.
Santa Claus has always been a show stopper for photographers, whether he was carrying a bag of toys for the Dayton Sears store from an airplane in the 1940s, snuggling with a local child in the 1960s or receiving a kiss from Dayton philanthropist Virginia Kettering.
Kettering, just a few years later, started the communities first holiday celebration, “One World of Christmas,” the forerunner of today’s downtown Dayton Holiday Festival where new memories and new photographs continue to be made each year.
ABOUT THIS FEATURE
HISTORY EXTRA is a weekly pictorial history feature showcasing the Miami Valley’s rich heritage. If you have a unique set of historic photos found in your parents’ or grandparents’ attic that depicts the past in the Miami Valley, contact Lisa Powell at 937-225-2229 or at Lisa.Powell@coxinc.com.
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