ByGone Muncie: Santa in the Magic City
MUNCIE, Ind. – On Dec. 5, 1920, Santa Claus dispatched a wireless telegram to W.A. McNaughton’s department store in downtown Muncie. It began: “I am leaving North Pole tonight via aeroplane to make my promised visit to your store.” Santa’s missive also included instructions: “You may announce that I invite all folks who have automobiles, buggies and wagons to join me at the landing field on Marsh farm.”
McNaughton Co. was kind enough to publish the telegram in The Muncie Star, conveniently placed next to their Christmas ad.
Santa’s plane appeared over Muncie the following day about 4 p.m. The Star reported that “Santa made the circuit over Muncie, then gracefully landed in the Wysor Marsh field, where people in autos and buggies and folks afoot" met him. He was driven to McNaughton’s store at the southeast corner of Walnut and Charles, where hundreds of screaming children had gathered with parents.
Santa was enthroned in “Toyland on the 5th floor, where we have fixed him up a nice home.” An ad in the Evening Press noted that Kris Kringle was receiving visitors every day from 10:00am to 2:00pm through Christmas Eve.
Old Saint Nick made many similar appearances in Muncie over the years, drawing rapt attention from the city’s children and, apparently, from their parents as well. A Newspapers.com search of Muncie press from 1879 through November 2022 yielded 26,427 returns for “Santa Claus.” By way of comparison, a search for “Ball Brothers” returned 36,994 results and “Jesus Christ,” 17,320. “Emily Kimbrough” was mentioned only 1,688 times and “Bob Ross,” a mere 1,010.
These anecdotal numbers suggest a relatively significant local preoccupation with the tubby folk saint for over a century, at least in print. On Christmas Eve in 1880 for instance, the Muncie Daily Times reminded readers that “Santa Claus will make his annual visit to-night. Be sure and leave the stove door open.”
By the 1890s, Santa was making routine seasonal visits to Delaware County in the days leading up to Christmas. On one such trip in 1892, Santa accidentally caught on fire. At a Christmas party on December 23, Kris Kringle was the guest of honor in Lillie Tuttle’s one room Monroe Township schoolhouse. The Old Jolly Elf came to deliver gifts at the school’s Christmas party. The Morning News wrote that part of his cotton cloak accidentally “caught on fire and Santa Claus was badly burned about the face and hands.” The not-so-jolly elf’s burnt flesh “caused a general disturbance in the room.” Needless to say, “the Santa Claus part of the program was dispensed with.”
Undaunted, Santa returned to set up shop each Christmas season in retail stores downtown. In mid-December of 1900, Santa arrived in Muncie via train to “a rousing reception at the Big Four station.” Santa Claus was then paraded downtown in a steam-powered car driven by his wife. He distributed “300 tin horns to the boys and girls,” which I’m sure totally delighted the city’s adult population. The Evening Press wrote that Santa was installed in McNaughton’s window in the Morgan-Johnson Building on “Walnut street every afternoon and evening until Christmas. He will spend his mornings answering letters.”
Local newspapers began publishing such correspondence soon after. For instance in 1910, 7 year old Pauline Hayes of South Madison St. wrote Santa asking for “a set of dishes and a go-cart and a big doll.” Pauline concluded, “I will tell mamma to leave the back door open.” At the end of World War 1 in 1918, a second grader named Martha Lutz of West Charles St. asked Santa to “bring me a trunk for my doll, a handkerchief, and some candy and nuts. I don’t want very much this year as Uncle Sam wants everyone to conserve.”
By the 1920s, Santa’s seasonal visits to Muncie became a celebrated tradition, often involving airplanes and lavish parades. In 1926 the Muncie Star partnered with local retailers for a grand downtown spectacle. In anticipation of Santa’s arrival, the paper reported that thirty businesses planned “floats and exhibits all decorated in the gayest Yuletide spirit.” The Star wrote that “immortal Santa Claus, idol of youth, was given an ovation yesterday in Muncie equal to any festivity ever arranged to honor a President.” Heralded by trumpets, Santa’s parade included clowns, a platoon of Muncie police officers, and a menagerie of animals known as “Santa’s Zoo.”
Epic Santa parades lasted throughout the middle decades of the 20th century. The 1937 parade is notable in that Santa gave a full interview to the Evening Press. He told a reporter, “I left three shifts of gnomes going strong up at the Pole. I really should be there, but since there were a lot of behavior reports on Muncie boys and girls to be finished, I was glad to come down. I also had to grease a few chimneys.”
The Santa parade was on war footing in 1942. The Star reported the “wartime influence was evident in the line with soldiers, sailors and marines, who were on leave or with the army band.” This parade is noteworthy because it featured giant helium balloons. Designed by the renowned artist Jean Gros and made by Goodyear, the balloons were fashioned after characters like Snoopy Sam, Mickey Mouse, and Peter Pumpkin Eater. However, the parade’s flagship balloon was the “Santa Claus Special,” a giant helium rendition of Santa riding a train. The Star told readers it was “the longest balloon feature in the world.”
Like the rest of Muncie, Santa began abandoning downtown in the post-war decades. On Black Friday in 1974, St. Nick somehow managed to be in two places at once. He was receiving children at King’s Department Store in the Northwest Plaza, while also leading a small parade down Madison Street to the Southway Plaza.
By the 1980s, Santa was routinely hosting children at the Muncie Mall in the weeks before Christmas. In 1987, he arrived anachronistically by train. Norfolk Southern dropped him and Mrs. Claus off at McGalliard, where gathered children released “hundreds of balloons as an official indication that Santa has arrived.” Santa Claus has held court in Muncie Mall ever since, having received the material demands of three generations of Munsonian children
However, when I was growing up in the 1980s, the real Santa Claus was always at YWCA’s Jingle Bell Journey. From 1977-2006, the YW hosted thousands of children as they journeyed through various Christmas traditions before meeting the big man. I knew this was the real Santa, because he always allowed me a tug of his very real beard. What more proof does one need?
Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Santa knows his way around Muncie, but just don’t forget to “leave the stove door open.”
Chris Flook is a Delaware County Historical Society board member and a Senior Lecturer of Media at Ball State University.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: ByGone Muncie: Santa in the Magic City
