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Auckland's giant Santa

Auckland's giant Santa on the Farmers building in 1960 (left) and the Whitcoulls building in 2009 (right), shortly after his makeover.

Auckland icon or 'old dodgy man'?

In 1960 Farmers erected a giant Santa on the front of their building on the corner of Hobson Street and Wyndham Street in Auckland. The fibre glass and steel tubing structure weighed over five tons (4535 kg) and stood at a height of about 59 ft (18 metres). It featured a winking eye and beckoning finger, which were intended to tempt customers into the store below.

The Levin (formerly Christchurch) Santa

The giant Santa was erected on the Farmers' Hobson Street store each Christmas for almost 30 years. Then in 1990 the store was put up for sale and the possibility arose that this would be Santa's 'last public airing'. This was the same year Farmers turned over responsibility for its Santa Parade to the Auckland Children's Christmas Parade Trust. Fortunately the Manukau City Shopping Centre, where another Farmers store was located, offered to cover some of the costs of erecting Santa. He subsequently graced their building each Christmas from 1991 to 1995.

In 1996 the shopping centre decided not to put Santa up because of his tatty appearance. Farmers, who still owned Santa, weren't sure that they wanted him either. After years of neglect he was in need of a serious refit. In 1998, following two years of negotiations, a marketing and events consultant, Stephen Hanford, purchased Santa from Farmers for $1. He called in favours from friends, companies and business associates to have Santa restored and returned to the people of Auckland. In all over 40 people contributed time, services or money. Among them was scaffolding expert Tony Webb who had over 30 years experience putting Santa up and taking him down. The restoration project was completed over a few months at Southdown Industrial Park in Penrose at a cost of about $40,000. The work undertaken included a paint job, removing rot from the fibreglass structure and rust from the supporting structure.

The restored Santa found a new home above Whitcoulls on Auckland's Queen Street. The company had offered financial support towards the costs of transporting Santa, getting him up and down from the building, and his storage. Further assistance came from Auckland City Council, and a number of companies and individuals who offered goods or services at ‘special Santa rates’. Whitcoulls continued to provide annual financial support for Santa and when Mr Hanford left to live in Australia in 2003 he subsequently handed over ownership to the company. But in December 2008 Whitcoulls declared that they could no longer absorb Santa’s costs, which had risen to $55,000, and gifted him to the city. This put the responsibility on ratepayers. Auckland CBD lobby group, Heart of Auckland City, subsequently asked Aucklanders whether they wanted to foot the bill for Santa. Alex Swney, the CEO of the group explained:

We're happy for Aucklanders to tell us what they want for next Christmas. Is Santa an iconic Auckland institution or a sad old dodgy man?

Santa's winking eye for sale

In December 2009 sculptor Damien Kutia, the man behind the revamped appearance of Auckland's giant Santa, put Santa's ‘dodgy winking eye' up for sale on TradeMe. It sold for $790 with a percentage of the money going to the Child Cancer Foundation.

While many had fond memories of the giant Santa, others found him and his beckoning finger ‘creepy’ (the winking eye had already been turned off because of complaints about the noise from neighbours). Rival pro-Santa and anti-Santa Facebook groups were set up. After several months of discussion the Heart of Auckland City announced that 12 polls all showed strong support for keeping Santa - and that he would be back for Christmas 2009.

The giant Santa subsequently underwent a $100,000-plus makeover with support from Heart of Auckland City, Auckland City Council, and longtime Santa supporters Farmers and Whitcoulls. The group took on board some of the suggestions that had come in from the public. When Santa was unveiled in November 2009 he had been given a more friendly appearance and his ‘creepy' beckoning finger had been replaced with a static one.

Video of Santa being erected at Whitcoulls in Auckland, provided by InfoNewsNZ.

In December 2011 the Auckland Santa was branded the 'World's creepiest Christmas ornament' by the popular American website cracked.com. Read more here (NZ Herald)

Credit:

Image: still shots from Should Santa stay or go? and Santa's new look face revealed provided by TVNZ OnDemand.

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Santa parades

To view as slideshow you will need to Download latest Flash Player.

Santa or Christmas parades take place throughout New Zealand in November or December each year. They began in the main centres in the early 1900s. They were established by department stores to promote the arrival of in-store Santas, with the clear aim of drawing customers directly into their stores.

George and Kersley Ltd’s Wellington store ‘the Economic’ appears to have been the first to ‘parade’ their Santa. In 1905 they invited local boys and girls to come and see ‘Mother and Father Christmas’ arrive at the railway station. The following year the pair stopped off in the Hutt Valley and Petone en route to the store in Lambton Quay, whilst another character, Punch, visited local suburbs and the hospital.

Over the next two decades Santas became a Christmas fixture at department stores – and stores sought more and more elaborate ways to promote their Santa’s arrival. The journeys by car and railway that had characterised early parades were dropped in favour of more exciting means of travel. During the 1930s Christchurch store Armstrong’s had Santa arrive on an elephant, while Farmers in Auckland and D.I.C in Christchurch had their Santas arrive by plane (though he then had to travel by car to their stores). In 1937 Farmers outdid all previous efforts by having their Santa parachute into the Auckland Domain.

Santa’s entourage also grew during this period. Fairies and giants were popular choices. In Farmers first ‘grand parade’ in Auckland in 1934 Santa was accompanied by the ‘Waggles and Goggles, The Fat Boy, The Man that Walks on his Hands, Harold Lloyd, the Giant and the Big Fiddle’. The following year local competitor George’s Court paraded Santa with ‘the Boop family of giants’.

The Second World War brought a halt to the parades. But by 1948 Farmers had reinstituted their Auckland parade, and Hay’s in Christchurch held their inaugural parade with a series of floats depicting ‘nursery rhymes and seasonal themes’.

1958 Christmas parade film

The next few decades were a period of relative stability for Santa parades. Particular department stores came to dominate those held in the main centres – Farmers in Auckland, James Smith’s in Wellington and Hay’s in Christchurch.

Many of the elaborate floats created for these events still grace Santa parades today. And many of the traditions established during this period, such as Santa being preceded by a number of other acts, are hallmarks of the modern Santa parade.

But by the late 1980s the parades were becoming too expensive for individual department stores to run. Between 1989 and 1991 the longstanding parades in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch were taken over by charitable trusts. The parades have become more overtly commercial as the trusts sell off the naming rights to both the entire parade and individual floats and characters. At the same time the parades have become more representative of New Zealand society with a broad range of community and voluntary groups participating alongside local businesses and traditional floats.

The parades are frequently criticised for being overly commercial. A number of councils have considered stopping or cutting their funding, and directing it to more ‘community orientated’ events like Christmas in the Park. But while many parades gain funding from councils and community trusts, they also rely heavily on commercial sponsors to make up the cost of staging the event.

Today’s parades are elaborate affairs involving hundreds of floats and acts, thousands of participants and volunteers, and hundreds of thousands of spectators and dollars.

Images references:
1. Evening Post, 8 Dec 1905; 2. Christchurch City Libraries, File Reference: CCL PhotoCD 17, IMG0001; 3. New Zealand Herald 23 Nov 1934; 4. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: PAColl-3332-05-10; 5. Christchurch City Libraries, File Reference: CCL Img ARCH812-73; 6. Christchurch City Libraries 2007 Christmas Flickr set

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Wellington santa parade in 1958

The first half of this film shows thousands of people attending a Christmas parade in Wellington in 1958. Santa arrives on a float decorated as a ship called ‘the spirit of Christmas’.

The second half of this film show a life-sized nativity stable being built in Taihape. It is visited by people from all over the district.

Film courtesy of Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga
Reference: Pictorial Parade No 82, pt 3
See more about this film on Archives New Zealand's Audio Visual wiki
Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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http://audiovisual.archives.govt.nz/filmplayer/Pictorial Parade No. 82 Part 3.flv

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Politically incorrect Christmas games

Playing 'Light the cigarette race' at the Tolaga Bay School Christmas party, 1953

Search the Web for ‘Christmas games’ and you’ll be able to play or download a huge range of computer games – for kids and adults. But before e-games, people played all sorts of games around Christmas time. Some had a Christmas theme or adapted another game for the occasion, such as ‘Pin the nose on Rudolph’.

Others were picnic or party games that could also be played at Christmas time. Many of these games reversed gender roles – men played women and vice versa – or they paired up the sexes in strange ways or rituals, such as the three-legged race.

Some of these games haven’t stood the test of time very well – we could even call them politically incorrect. The ‘Light the cigarette race’ dates back to at least the early 20th century. It was played on ships crossing the Atlantic and was said to be a way for people to get fit. In New Zealand it was played at the Tolaga Bay School Christmas party in 1953, when smoking was popular for both sexes. Clearly the aim was to get men and women huddling together; health issues about smoking were on no one’s mind then. The rules (when played on board a ship) are provided in this New York Times article, 9 October 1904.

A cigarette race
A cigarette race is not the least exciting or amusing. In this men and women are paired off. Either can do the running, but the men usually usurp that honor. The runners start from one end of the deck, while the partners wait at the other end. Each man is provided with a cigarette and each woman with some matches. The partners must meet, light the cigarette, and then the runner must return to the starting point, his cigarette still lighted, the one to get back first winning the race. The women are compelled to strike the matches to light the cigarette. They are not allowed to strike them on any part of the ship, on a match box, or on the soles of their shoes, which leaves “man fashion” practically the only way in which they can ignite the matches. The efforts of some of the women to be mannish is often extremely humorous, and the inability of many women to ignite the matches in that way often loses the race to a swift man.

In 1934 the Evening Post published a Christmas supplement that included suggestions for indoor party games over the festive season. One of these, ‘The Slave Market’, definitely belongs to another era of gender relations.

What to do at indoor Christmas parties is becoming more and more of a problem. Here are some suggestions which may help to add diversion to the occasion: For instance, you can sell some of your guests. This game is called "The Slave Market." You choose five or six players, attractive-looking girls if possible to be sold as slaves, and one good compere to act as auctioneer. You give, say, twenty counters to each of the other players, whose object is to buy as many slaves as possible. If two players manage to buy the same number of slaves, the one who has most counters left wins. Skill consists in "pushing" the bids of other players and lying low for bargains. This sounds easy in cold blood, but is not so easy when the players are subjected to the blandishments of a) Uncle William as auctioneer after a good dinner and b) the slaves. It would be a shame to let Jane's saucy eyes go for a paltry two counters!

The team at NZhistory does not advocate playing either of these games – at Christmas or any other time of the year! Please add your own examples of politically incorrect Christmans games in the community contributions area below.

Credit:

Archives New Zealand
Photographer: John Ashton
Reference: AAMK W3495, Box 7
Permission of Archives New Zealand/Te Rua Mahara o te Kawanatanga must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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'Sticky Beak the kiwi' song

Hear 'Sticky Beak the kiwi' performed by staff at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Click on the arrow to play or download as a podcast (mp3, 3.2mb) - right click on link and choose 'Save target as' or 'Save link as' to save to your computer.

Kiwi Christmas songs

Many traditional Christmas songs have been adapted for a New Zealand audience and conditions. In 1981 Kingi Ihaka wrote 'A pukeko in a ponga tree', a version of the popular song 'The twelve days of Christmas'. The Kiwi version has become a firm favourite in schools and often appears on New Zealand Christmas song compilations. Some hymns, such as 'Marie te po' ('Silent night'), have been translated into Maori to give them a New Zealand flavour.

One of the most popular New Zealand Christmas songs of the 1960s was 'Sticky Beak the kiwi', recorded by Kiwi Records. Gisborne songwriter and folk singer Bob Edwards wrote the words in the hope of producing a Christmas song especially for New Zealand children. Another local, Neil Roberts, set the words to music. Fourteen year old Gisborne schoolgirl Julie Nelson was selected to be the vocalist and recorded the hit song in 1961. She was backed by local group the Satins and the Whanganui dance band, the Don Bell Orchestra. The version available on this site was produced by staff at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in 2007.

The lyrics read like a manifesto of workers’ rights. The Aotearoa branch of the Santa Claus Distribution Union made it perfectly clear who was in charge once the sleigh arrived in this part of the world.

Now Sticky Beak the kiwi, that bird from way down under
He's caused a great commotion and it isn't any wonder
He's notified old Santa Claus to notify the deer
That he will pull the Christmas sleigh in the southern hemisphere.

Chorus:
Lots of toys for girls and boys load the Christmas sleigh
He will take the starlight trail along the Milky Way.
Hear the laughing children as they shout aloud with glee:
'Sticky Beak, Sticky Beak, be sure to call on me.'

Now every little kiwi, and every kangaroo, too,
The wallaby, the weka, and the platypus and emu,
Have made themselves a Christmas tree with stars and shining bright,
So Sticky Beak will see the way to guide the sleigh tonight.

Now Sticky Beak the kiwi, that Maori-land dictator,
Will not allow Rudolph's nose this side of the equator
So when you hear the sleigh bells ring you'll know that he's the boss,
And Sticky Beak will pull the sleigh beneath the Southern Cross.

See also the New Zealand folksong website.

Ministry for Culture and Heritage choir

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A day off for Christmas

Christmas Day revellers on Plimmerton beach in the 1920s.

Christmas becomes a public holiday

It's hard for most of us today to imagine Christmas Day not being a holiday, but a day off on 25 December hasn't always been a legal entitlement.

Christmas, like New Year and Easter, came to New Zealand with the earliest European settlers. At first it was a common-law holiday – a custom but not a legal right. In the mid-19th century, 25 December (unless it was a Sunday) was just another working day for many people although some of the provinces (such as Otago) made it a holiday.

Shops and pubs often opened. Newspapers were published on Christmas Day, some of them even into the early 20th century. In some early issues, Christmas was not even mentioned. The 25 December 1841 edition of the New Zealand Gazette was no different from any other issue of the paper.

New Zealand's first holiday law was the Bank Holidays Act 1873, modelled on British legislation, which confirmed the banks' existing practice of closing on 25 December and certain other holidays. The Employment of Females Act 1873 and the Factories Act 1894 gave female and youth workers the right to time off on Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday and several other days.

After the introduction of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894, most other New Zealand workers were guaranteed a handful of holidays, including Christmas Day and Boxing Day, in their industrial awards and agreements. These entitlements were confirmed by the Public Holidays Act 1910.

In the early 21st century an increasing number of New Zealanders work on Christmas Day and other public holidays, mainly in the transport, health and hospitality sectors and in essential services. Under the Holidays Act 2003, most people who work on Christmas Day are entitled to time-and-a-half pay and an alternative day off.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/2-071069-F
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Christmas in wartime

These images show New Zealand military personnel celebrating Christmas during the First World War and the Second World War, the post-war occupation of Japan, and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

Christmas during wartime gave soldiers a rare opportunity to relax and enjoy themselves away from the stresses and hardships of combat. It was also a time of sadness for many New Zealanders, both overseas and back home, as they thought of their absent family, lovers and friends far away.

Christmas parcels despatched from New Zealand supplied special food, drink and other treats as well as Christmas cards and mail. During the Second World War the men of 28 (Maori) Battalion especially welcomed the delivery of mutton-birds and other favourite foods from back home.

Despite the difficult circumstances of wartime, service personnel often put a great deal of effort into creating a celebratory, festive atmosphere.

See also: images of Christmas from the New Zealand prisoner of war publication, Tiki Times.

Image references:

1. Headquarters, New Zealand Defence Force Library; 2. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: DA-11477-F. Photographer: Dr C.N. D'Arcy; 3. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: DA-04879-F. Photographer: George Bull; 4. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: DA-07966-F; 5. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: DA-07987-F; 6. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: J-0635-F; 7. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: K-0658-F; 8. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: K-0645-F; 9. Mrs G. Roberts private collection

Alexander Turnbull Library
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of these images.

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Summer holidays

New Zealand Railways publicity poster for Caroline Bay, Timaru, 1935

Caroline Bay offered an entire programme of activities for holidaymakers over the summer. Starting on Boxing Day and finishing in mid-January, there were concerts and dances, sand-modelling contests, parades for pets and ‘Tiny Tots’, mother–son and mother–daughter contests and a wide selection of beauty contests. The New Year’s Eve midnight bonfire was the highlight, but the Miss Caroline Bay Bathing Beauty Contest was the glamour event through to the 1960s.

The end-of-year prize for being a New Zealander

Come late December and thousands of Kiwis get ready for their annual holiday. They look forward to lazy days at the beach or the bach (or crib), games of backyard cricket, food on the barbie and the holiday uniform of shorts, jandals and T-shirts. From before Christmas until after the New Year, we take our summer holidays – some people have said it’s our end-of-year prize for being a New Zealander.

We haven’t always had summer holidays. Of course, many of us still don’t – we want to shop, go to the movies or watch TV, and we expect everything to be available, so hospitals, power supplies, police and much more still run 24/7. And if we live on a farm, then summer means more work, not holidays.

The summer break as we know it started to be popular in New Zealand from the 1920s. Restrictions on work hours meant that people began to have clearly defined days off around Christmas from the late 19th century.

Improved transport links boosted the summer break. The number of automobiles grew rapidly in the 1920s and 1930s, but most inter-war holidaymakers travelled by rail. On Christmas Eve 1934, five express trains carrying 1800 travellers left Wellington for stations along the North Island main trunk line. Four years later, eight trains ferried more than 3000 passengers northwards. The New Zealand Herald described the bustle of Auckland station at Christmas 1935.

Throngs of people in the most diverse kinds of holiday attire, people laden with suitcases, bags and parcels of every conceivable shape and size, and above all children, armed with buckets and spades, toy aeroplanes, squeakers and a hundred and one other toys, all hurried or were hurried down the platforms, until it seemed that everyone in Auckland was bent on leaving the city.

By the 1950s the private automobile was the preferred means of getting away from it all. With cars, people could pack food and gear for prolonged holidays over the Christmas–New Year period. As cars took people further away from home, campsites were developed. Beaches were ideal places for camping, and from the 1920s, permanent baches or cribs could be found at many beaches. Caravans came on the scene from the 1940s, giving holidaymakers even more options.

Summer holidays at the beach in the 21st century are not as easy as they used to be. Coastal land seems prime for people building large holiday homes, and in some areas, the humble Kiwi bach is under threat. Areas such as Pauanui, once a local holiday spot, have been transformed into upmarket beach suburbs. Some beachside camping grounds have also closed as their owners sell up to developers.

For more on beach culture, see Te Ara.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: Eph-A-TOURISM-Canterbury-1935-01-front
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Santa goes to the Chathams

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This slide show features a series of shots taken by the Evening Post photographer who accompanied Santa to the Chatham Islands in 1951 on board a TEAL Solent flying boat.

Below is a report of the event from the Evening Post, 17 December 1951.

Chathams Christmas Party
His traditional reindeer and sleigh replaced by a four-engined TEAL Solent, Father Christmas flew up to the Chatham Islands on Saturday. More than 400 of the islands’ 500 inhabitants cheered him hilariously as he stepped ashore from a launch in Te Whanga Lagoon, a huge sack of toys over his shoulder.
In the three and a quarter hours he distributed good cheer, the islanders – all in paper hats provided by TEAL – consumed several bottles of whisky and soft drinks, numerous cartons of strawberries, 48 dozen chocolate ice creams, and 60 dozen ice cream blocks, and 10 gallons of ice cream, estimated to produce 450 ices. The ice cream was donated by a Christchurch firm and carried free by TEAL.
From two brightly decorated Christmas trees and a number of bran tubs on the beach each of the islands’ children received a present from the hands of Father Christmas himself. Never before has Te Whanga Lagoon witnessed so many hand-shakings, expressions of good will and head-pattings.
The only incident of the flight down from Wellington occurred when a sheep dog, bored with his crate, broke out of it to investigate his surroundings in a passenger compartment which had been converted for the carriage of innumerable crates of bananas, sausages and other goods. Evans Bay Traffic Officer Allan Valois soon made him more comfortable.
Of the 30 passengers on the Awatere only five were islanders.
Like George and David Richie who were going to stay with Dudley Ousey, a fellow pupil of the Hereworth School, Havelock North, many were going to the island for a holiday.
The happiest couple on the flying-boat were the well-known footballer, Russell Hohaia, of Taranaki, and Myra Tuuta, of Big Bush, who were going to the Chathams to be married from Myra’s home.

The visit was a celebration of TEAL's year-old air service to the remote islands, which had previously only been serviced by boat. The regular flight from Wellington allowed the transport of people and fresh produce. As one local pointed out, 'Without TEAL's service the people would have been in a very difficult position during the recent waterfront strike.'

Alexander Turnbull Library,
References: All eight images are from the Evening Post Collection. 1. Ref 114/408/56-F; 2. Ref 114/408/39-F; 3. Ref 114/408/43-F; 4. Ref 114/408/54-F; 5. Ref 114/408/46-F; 6. Ref 114/408/42-F; 7. Ref 114/408/38-F; 8. Ref 114/408/53-F

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of these images.

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Christmas in New Zealand

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Further information - Kiwi Christmas

<h2>Links</h2>
<ul><li><a href="http://blog.teara.govt.nz/2007/12/12/don%e2%80%99t-be-a-turkey/">Te Ara's Christmas blog entry</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz/2051576234/in/set-7215760... Library's Christmas cards page on Flickr</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.teara.govt.nz/TheBush/NativePlantsAndFungi/TallBroadleafTrees...ōhutukawa</a> (Te Ara)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psyIb6omKFI&sdig=1">Close up: Christmas lights</a> (TVNZ) </li>
</ul><h2>Books</h2>
<ul></ul>