Christmas Windows
Take a historical journey around Australia to see how people from the past decorated the shop windows to entice customers.
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Hi, this is Kelly Chase and you are listening to History Detective, and if you already follow me on Instagram- @historydetective9- you will know that I LOVE Christmas decorations. So today I am going to share the history of decorating the Christmas Windows of shops in Australia.
If you do a google search for Christmas window displays you are likely to be taken to Pinterest pages full of the most magnificent Christmassy goodness you could ever imagine. One of the biggest department stores in Australia, Myer, have been delighting adults and children alike for the last 67 years with their magical displays.
But I would like to go back to a time when every Christmas didn’t look like a Netflix Christmas movie set. I want to go back to a much simpler time of Christmas windows, where people did their best to add a little Christmas cheer to their window displays. Let’s pop in our times machine take a historical road trip around the different states and territories of Australia to peek in the humble Christmas windows of some good old Aussie businesses. Let me take you back to a time where wrapping an iron in cellophane was good enough to get you a write-up in the newspaper.
Now before I get started on the tour, it is important to discuss the purpose of a Christmas window. Businesses want to bring in more customers. If the shoppers are gawking in their window, then it is more than likely that they will pop inside to buy something. Many of the early Christmas windows were not cutesy woodland scenes or dioramas of Santa’s workshop, but they were instead just putting their store stock in the window so customers could get some ideas for Christmas presents. Remember, there was no online shopping, no junk mail full of gift ideas, no television advertising and no influences on reels telling you what to buy. The only place you were going to get ideas for presents, was if you went down to the shops and did a bit of window shopping.
I also thought I’d share a with you a little vocabulary word that I learned in the process of researching this episode. The word Mister, as in Mister Squiggle or Mister Smith, actually has a plural. It is Messrs spelled M-E-S-S-R-S. It comes up a lot in old newspaper articles especially because often shops were owned by and named after two or more misters.
We are going to start our little journey in the year 1903 in the town of Tamworth, now famous for its country music festival, but in 1902 their Christmas window claim to fame was a bit more obscure. A local tailor, Mr Flanders, apparently ingeniously fitted out his Christmas window with a scene of the Trans-Siberian railway of the Russians sending troops and war supplies to invade Manchuria. I am not quite sure how a depiction of a Russian invasion represents the Christmas spirit, but I guess that was Tamworth in the 1900s.
Another interesting feature of some of these early Christmas windows was the use of real-life children. In the town of Bathurst- now famous for the car race- one store had a window display where there was a child sleeping in a four-poster bed with stockings overflowing with presents tied to the ends of the bed. The little chap would then wake up, rub his eyes and begin to delightedly unpack his Christmas stockings holding up each item to the crowd of onlookers outside the window. Genius advertising.
The Singer Sewing machine company also got a little crafty with their window. Their display was representing an Australian settler’s home, complete with a dairy, orchard, poultry farm and even a woman milking a cow. I guess in 1908. Nothing says Christmas spirit more than seeing a woman milking a cow. But apparently the window attracted hundreds on Christmas eve and the crowds were so dense, people had to postpone their visit until later.
Now to head to our nation’s capital, Cnaberra, where historically, Christmas window displays have been a bit of a sorry sight. I am sure it is much better now. An article in the Canberra Times in 1969, had a debate about the issue, with a street reported gathering opinions on the state of Canberra’s decorations.
One woman named Mrs MacCallum claimed that “Christmas Decorations are a waste of taxpayers money” and that they “don’t go with the gum trees.” Bah humbug! But most people interviewed said that Canberra needed more. Mr Halifax explained that Canberra was lacking something not having decorations and, “[it] would be a much brighter place if they decorated it at Christmas time.”
Miss Brown agreed by saying, “I don’t think there’s a Christmas spirit here at all.” And she pondered that “Perhaps all the storekeepers are going away and don’t want to put up decorations.”
I am sorry Canberra; I hope your Christmas decoration game has lifted since the 1960s. All of my Canberra listeners, and I know there are a few, if you have any photos of fabulous decorations take a photo and tag me on Instagram. Just search for @historydetective9
Next, we are heading south to the bustling city of Melbourne. Now as you may know, if you think Christmas windows in Melbourne, you are probably thinking of the Myer Christmas windows, which were first decorated in the year of the 1956 Olympics. Of course, the theme that year was Santa at the Olympics and they have had a different theme every year since. This year’s is 100 years of Disney.
But long before Myer did their thing, in 1911, another store in Melbourne had a window display and just like in Bathurst, they were using real-life children. Unfortunately, this display ended in tragedy. You see one of the boys who was inside the window was ringing a bell. He must have been a little too vigorous with his jingling of said bell and he struck the inside of the window. The window smashed to the outside causing a stampede and sliced through the arm of a little boy who then stayed in hospital for five weeks, and in a strange detail included in the paper, he was given chloroform 4 times. He lost the use of his arm and his father tried to sue the Messrs who owned the store for £249. Sadly, the claim failed.
On another note, during WWI in 1914, there was a store in Ballarat that created a patriotic Christmas display of the ship HMAS Australia and it was made completely out of dainty handkerchiefs. I am not sure how you make a battleship out of dainty handkerchiefs; it is not the kind of skill that has a YouTube tutorial on it. I’m afraid that the art of handkerchief models may be a skill that is lost to history.
Now to the apple isle of Tasmania and they were true to their reputation of having delicious produce. In fact many of their Christmas displays were made out of food. One window used preserving sugar to represent snow and another window was filled with currents and raisins and scattered with, I quote, “fancy boxes of spice and other delicacies.” The window displays were filled with all sorts of fruits, cakes, puddings and sugary treats. That’s my kind of window, although I’m not sure about the currents and raisins.
Let’s get back to the mainland and see what South Australia had to offer the world of Christmas displays. In 1928, one window had a glorious miniature dance display complete with yet another spectacular display of handkerchiefs. I am telling you, making Christmas window decorations out of hankies is truly a lost art. The main attraction was a pirouetting doll whose skirts billowed Pavlova style. That’s Anna Pavlova prima ballerina, not the egg white based desert that will no doubt be the star of many an Australian Christmas lunch table this year.
Now let’s head west to see if their windows are the best. In Coolgardie they had a competition to see which shop had the best displays with different categories including grocers, drapers, fruiterers and general. None of their windows seemed to have a particularly Christmas theme. One window had a Scottish kilt and a bottle of whiskey, another had a doll in an Irish costume and a picture of an Irish linen factory. Interesting. And the grocers prize went to a window that had neatly displayed fancy goods.
Sadly, in the Northern Territory, none of the journalists thought any of the windows were noteworthy enough to write about it, but there must have been some demand for it because in October of 1952, a man called George S Brown was advertising his services as a Christmas window dresser and skited about the prizes he had won in International Competitions. That is a career path I never really thought about. Althoug there is a show on Netfilx called Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas
Let us end our journey Australia in the Sunshine State. In Brisbane, in 1908, the Messrs Rothwell had a pair of goldfish bowls on stands and they had an electric light installed that made the fish sparkle. What this has to do with Christmas, I am not quite sure. But one of my favourites is a white goods store in Adelaide Street called Buzacotts. “Each electrical appliance, from the refrigerator down to the iron, is wrapped in cellophane, and multi-coloured lights and holly giving a festive atmosphere. Buzacotts windows are always well worth seeing, but this one excels.”
So, from cellophane wrapped appliances, to the lost art of decoration with handkerchiefs, it has been a whirlwind trip around Australia to see how it is done.
If you see any worthy Christmas windows this year, tag me on Instagram @historydetective9.
This is my third year of making a Christmas podcast so if you would like to hear my other Christmas episodes scroll back to the 2020 ep called Lunch of Christmas Past or last years’ episode which was the tragedy of Lady Santa.
Also, I have a little Christmas treat, I have released a new single, and it comes out on the 24th of December where ever you stream your music. It is called Broken People and it is dedicated to all of the emergency workers who have to work on Christmas and spend time away from their families. I hope you keep safe and have a light to guide you home.
This Christmas, whether you are working, celebrating with friends or family, or just trying to have a low-key, drama free day of rest. I hope you have a wonderful day.
This Kelly Chase, on the Christmas Case.