Posted in: Historic Miscellania The World League for a Sane Christmas

Indianapolis News, July 18, 1911. Oh, tired Christmas shoppers!  Burned out on commercial Christmases?  So were people back in 1911, when a league that sought to call a halt to unfettered Christmas gift-giving established its national...

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Posted in: Historic Miscellania Die Weihnachtseinkäufe

Die Weihnachtszeit ist nahe.  Christmas time is near. That’s not an ad from overseas.  At the turn of the 20th century, Indianapolis had a thriving German-speaking population. The major local German newspaper in 1900, the...

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Posted in: Then & Now Indianapolis Then and Now: Union Station’s Santa Colossal

Courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society, Bass Photo Company Collection #109919 It just isn’t Christmas in Indianapolis without Santa Colossal, so we’re repeating the story about the five-story foam Santa who ended up as insulation....

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Posted in: Indianapolis Collected Indianapolis Collected: Miracle on Washington Street

Long before Ralphie told a bearded man in a red suit about his secret desire to own a Red Ryder BB Gun, American children have been sharing their Christmas lists with department store Santas. The...

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Posted in: Then & Now Then and Now: Union Station’s Santa Colossal

At Christmastime in 1949, a large and unusual singing Santa Claus made a short appearance in Union Station, the city’s 1888 Romanesque revival train station. The Chamber of Commerce organized the Indianapolis Industrial Exposition to...

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