Christmas Coloring Page - 1968

One of the surest signs that Christmas was on its way back in the 1960s and 70s was the appearance of this coloring page in the Lorain Journal. The newspaper ran the illustration of Santa playing with wind-up toys above a page of boxed ads during the Christmas season for years.

This particular ad appeared in the paper on November 26, 1968.

Courtesy GunsInternational.com

I included a few (but not all) of the ads that accompanied the cartoon in this appearance.

Despite the coloring gimmick, the ads include some very adult gifts, such as an Illinois Sesquicentennial Model 94 Carbine rifle being advertised by Bob’s Firearms on Leavitt Road; a gun cabinet priced from $83.90 at Avon Hardware; Mogan David Kosher wines from Meyer Goldberg Supermarkets; luggage and wallets from Givner's at 10th & Broadway; and an Admiral Color TV at Leonard's TV Service & Sales at the corner of Colorado Avenue and Henderson Drive.

If anyone still has one of those Winchester Illinois Sesquicentennial Model 94 rifles, they seem to be worth four or five hundred dollars today.