1963 Lorain Christmas Parade

Here's a nice ad promoting the Downtown Lorain Christmas Parade of 1963 that ran in the Lorain Journal on December 4. (Give it a click for a closer look.)

The ad's interesting for a couple of reasons. It looks like it is probably a generic ad in which each city would drop its own local information. The dead giveaway is the ad copy 'written' by Santa that says, "here I come to open the Christmas shopping season in your hometown!"

Downtown Lorain at that time was being challenged by all of the local shopping centers, including Sheffield, Oakwood, Shoreway, Lorain Plaza and Westgate. The downtown merchants put up a good fight for many years, however, and having the Christmas Parade in Lorain's traditional place to shop was a good idea.

It was also a great idea to feature so many local marching bands, as well as 'high school beauty queens'. People like to see their kids in parades. I know my poor parents sat through a dozen parades over the years just to catch a glimpse of my brothers and I. (Lucky for my parents, I don't remember ever marching in a December parade, however!)

It's nice to see well-known Lorainite Pete DeSantis mentioned in the ad as donating potato chips 'for the kiddies.' Mr. DeSantis passed away this past September and was another true Lorain icon.