The Ghosts of Kingsport Christmases Past

 

The First Kingsport Christmas Parade - 1927

Give the first merchants of Kingsport their due: they knew how to excite the populace. For the first Santa Parade in 1927 they imported not one but two Santa’s! Imported them from Bristol no less.

At first they publicized the event as featuring two Kris Kringles. Then they labeled them the “twin Santas.” But soon they realized that this would confuse the kiddies of Kingsport and the promotions began talking about Santa Claus and Saint Nick. They even tried calling them Santa Claus and his brother!

That first parade, scheduled for Dec. 12, 1927 and moved at the last minute because of mud and rain to Dec. 16, was sponsored by the Kingsport Retail Merchants Association. In 1927 there were 30 members.

The purpose of the parade was simple: “Mark the formal opening of the Christmas season in Kingsport and introduce the buying public to the delights and opportunities of this city as a Christmas shopping center.”

Bring your kids and your money, in other words.

It was a much shorter shopping season in 1927, fewer than two weeks between the parade and the holiday.

The city’s merchants pulled out all the stops. “The Santa Clauses, the music, the motorcade, the glittering shop windows, the Christmas decorations on the store fronts and in the parkways, the merry crowds on the streets, the beautiful displays in the stores - all will combine to make a fascinating and delightful scene in keeping with the world's greatest holiday….Never before in the history of the city has there been a formal Christmas opening like this.” Of course Kingsport was barely ten years old at the time.

The big night and the big parade arrived, after the four-day rain delay. “Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus arrived in Kingsport as scheduled Friday evening, were greeted royally, escorted over the entire city with much celebrating and merry making, and held sway over the city for the one evening.”

The parade formed at Dobyns-Bennett High School (now Sevier Middle School) at seven o'clock.

“The band played as one twin Kris Kringle ascended the first decorated float that was to lead the parade. Then, still to the strains of music, the other Saint Nick mounted another float and the parade was ready to be off. Following the first float came the band. Then the second float, followed by a parade of more than fifty cars, furnished by the dealers and retail merchants.” That was a lot of cars in 1927.

Before heading downtown the motorcade toured residential districts “the band playing constantly to call the people forth to greet and do homage to the royal visitors.”

At Broad and Main Santa Number One “was left to hold sway over the crowds doing their shopping on Broad, Main, Market and other streets in the vicinity, while Santa number two was transported back to Five Points following a short detour into Highland Park. …Thus was the Christmas season officially opened in Kingsport.” 

 

Kingsport’s merchants – and they were the folks who sponsored the Santa parades – were always looking for a unique publicity angle to attract crowds.

In 1934 it was a “strongman.” (Like the guys in the circus)

“Strongman and stunt artist” Charles Jewel towed Santa’s firetruck into town by gripping a rope in his teeth. Then he swung Tarzan-style across Broad Street.

Here’s how the Dec. 12, 1934 Kingsport Times described the planned festivities:

CELEBRATION FRIDAY NIGHT

“The Christmas shopping season will enter its gala final stage Friday evening with the presentation of a Christmas holiday program, with a real Santa Claus, by the merchants. A parade with Kris Kringle himself at the head will parade the downtown business section at 7:30 p. m. Friday.

“Charles M. Jewel, stunt artist and strongman, will give an exhibition of strength by pulling the Kingsport fire truck with his teeth at 1:30 p. m. Friday, and again at the evening program he will thrill the thousands who are expected to attend with a death-defying exhibition, when he will swing by his teeth in mid-air from a building on one side of Broad street to a building on the other side.

“Christmas parades, with the appearance of Santa Claus, are becoming common and popular in cities to inaugurate the real Christmas season, and we believe they serve a good purpose. Such parades were held in Bristol and Johnson City Tuesday. These celebrations have a tendency to instill the Christmas spirit into the general public, a spirit which never hurt anyone and which banishes for a season the tedium and monotony of the year. Moreover they stimulate Christmas business, and the more money that is placed in circulation the better off will we all be.

“Also the celebration Friday evening will inaugurate the season of staying open evenings for the stores and shops. Friday evening they will remain open until 9:00 p. m. Saturday they will observe the regular Saturday evening closing hours. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings they will remain open until 8:00 p. m., and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings of next week until 9:00 p. m. The business section of a city in this before-Christmas season, with the bright lights, the gayly decorated store windows, and the crowds of busy shoppers coming and going, is both beautiful and inspirational. It turns the every day city into a city of enchantment, not only for the children but for the grown-ups as well.

“We would like to see the whole citizenship of Kingsport and Kingsport's trade area turn out for this celebration Friday evening. We think in a sense it is the duty of the people to attend-a duty to their city, a duty to the merchants who are playing such a splendid part in making the city what it is, and a duty to the spirit of Christmas, which draws us out of ourselves and somehow gives us a different outlook on life. We hope and believe that an enormous crowd will attend the celebration and see the parade and the program of entertainment. Moreover, we have an idea that the grownups will enjoy the occasion just about as much as the children, and will get just about as much of a thrill out of another meeting with the patron saint of the children!”

 

Yes, it was your duty as a citizen of Kingsport, to turn out for the parade and then to spent your money in the local stores.

This was at the depths of the Depression.

 

In December 1941, not a good December, the merchants hired well-known aerial stuntman Herbert Seaborne to dress up as Santa and parachute into town.

Two Santas (1927)? A strongman pulling Santa (1934)? A parachuting Santa (1941)?

Finally in 1942 the merchants hit on their best idea: the Santa Train, which is now a Kingsport Christmas tradition.

 

 

J. Fred’s Through the Years

Here are Christmas ads for the legendary Kingsport department store, which began operations in 1910 as Kingsport Stores – known locally as the Big Store. It changed its name to J. Fred Johnson & Co. in 1923 and to Miller’s in 1967.

1919

June 19, 1923

1927

1937

1947

1947

1952

1952

1957

1957

1967

1967