It’s around this time of year that I share scans of my vintage Christmas card collection, but this year I thought I would do something a little different… As some of you know Patrick and I collect vintage souvenir photo folders from California night clubs and supper clubs, which I highlighted awhile back. In a manner of speaking we carried this into our Christmas decorating, by collecting vintage folders that held Santa Claus photos from department stores. And while we focus on California locations for the night clubs and supper clubs, we are less picky when it comes to these Santa folders, but of course we do love when we stumble across a California location, and many of these are from California based department stores. Also, as Patrick is an avid photographer, he especially likes the ones that incorporate a camera into the art.
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This pair hails from The Emporium, and while a common name for a town’s local department store, the locations noted on the bottom of the second one are Bay Area locations.
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This one is really unique in that on the inside it reads “I Saw Santa and His Real Live Reindeer in Panorama City Shopping Center.” Panorama City was one of the many planned communities near Los Angeles, developed by Fritz Burns. Starting in 1953 he turned the Panorama City Shopping Center into a winter wonderland with fake snow, lights, trees, and his very own deer. However when Burns passed away in 1979 the tradition ended.
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While this one boasts no store on the front, the inside indicates it came from Bullock’s in downtown Los Angeles.
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This elf like Jack in the Box hails from Harris, a department store with locations in San Bernadino, Riverside, and Kern counties. The back of this one notes photo studio locations in San Bernardino and Riverside.
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The interior of this one notes it was from Capwell’s in Oakland, complete with a date of 1950.
In an ironic twist, we even stumbled upon a seasonal version of the restaurant souvenir photo folder, this one hailing from the Riviera.
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While the department store Santa is a thing of the past, he has been replaced by the mall Santa. However I do wonder how long malls will last, as dead malls are becoming more and more common. And what then? Where will children visit with Santa to snap their annual photo? Does your town have any mall Santa alternatives?