Department-Store Santa

Figure A--Santa's been helping out at stores since before the Civil War. It is believed that the first department store he appeared in was in Brockton, Massachusetts during the 1840s. Today, millions of parents plop their children onto a department-store Santa's lap each year.

Figure B--In the 1870s, R.H. Macy came up with the idea of using window displays to draw crowds to his Manhattan department store. The displays have grown in popularity each year, and today more than 7,000 people an hour pass Macy's windows during the height of the holiday season.