Back when department stores sold much more than apparel, Joske's had a toy department, expanded and

I wonder if you or any of your readers remember the life-size Santa that sat in Joske's big window facing the street at this time of year? There he'd sit, surrounded by snow and, with busily working elves at his feet, ho-ho-ho-ing as he rocked back and forth in his chair. I could have watched him all night, hoping to catch a glimpse of the invisible wires that made him move or perhaps a man inside the contraption operating levers. I knew he wasn't alive, but he sure looked it. Do you suppose that somewhere a picture remains of that long-ago scene?
Back when department stores sold much more than apparel, Joske's had a toy department, expanded and promoted as "Toyland" at Christmas time. The "exciting, mechanical window with Santa in the middle discount hong kong hotels of it all" was advertised in newspapers of the mid-to-late 1940s.
"The mechanical Santa display we had in one of our windows became very popular and was a fixture discount hong kong hotels for many years," says Doug Winnek , who was responsible for design and installation of the store's special window and interior displays from 1959 to 1967. After many years, he says, the figures in the moving tableau you remember were worn out beyond repair, "and we had to replace it with new Christmas discount hong kong hotels displays."
"This Santa was built for us, and we installed it every year," says Winnek. "It took a giant crane to set it up. The right arm was built on an axel from an old car that provided the mechanics for Santa to wave."
Some years later, a Joske's tradition was revived when a new giant Santa was built by a local parade-float designer, says Rivercenter General Manager Christian Oviatt discount hong kong hotels . This one took his place atop Dillard's from 1994 to 1997 until he was "blown from his perch in a severe windstorm."
The last surviving Joske's Santa was the only live one, seated on a thronelike chair in "an enchanted corner of the fourth discount hong kong hotels floor" in "the greatest Christmas attraction in the Southwest," according to newspaper advertisements discount hong kong hotels for Fantasy Land, an elaborate, discount hong kong hotels holiday-themed maze intended to distract children as they waited in line to sit on Santa's lap. The 16,000-square-foot extravaganza, says Winnek, "became one of the most popular Christmas attractions in Texas."
Fantasy Land was launched Nov. 14, 1960, with a preview party, and its mix of mechanical animals, a miniature train and sparkling "snow," leading up to face time with Santa, proved so popular that Fantasy Land was held over through post-Christmas sales that year. The store estimated that a thousand children discount hong kong hotels filed through discount hong kong hotels the winter wonderland each day.
A Fantasy Land photo exhibit at the Institute of Texan Cultures will be displayed through Dec. 31 on the entrance wall. The museum also invites those who saw the real thing to share memories on www.facebook.com/