The holidays at downtown Syracuse’s E. W. Edwards & Son department store in the years following World War II were magical.
It really was Central New York’s Christmas headquarters.
The store at the corner of South Salina and Washington Streets liked to bill itself as Syracuse’s “largest and most complete department store.” But that claim didn’t matter to the thousands of children who made annual pilgrimages to the store’s “Toyland” department at its Annex building on Clinton Street.
For them, this was, as The Post-Standard called Edwards in 1982, long after the store had closed, the area’s “true geographical center of Christmas.”
It was where a child could see Santa, get a present, work on their Christmas list, browse the latest toys, and, of course, take a ride on the store’s legendary monorail.
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In the holiday song “Silver Bells,” the lyrics sing of “City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style.”
That was downtown Syracuse at the holidays in the 1950s, before shopping habits were changed by gigantic suburban malls and Amazon.
“An afternoon light snowfall drifted down upon thousands of Syracuse shoppers to lend a festive holiday air to the biggest day of the Christmas rush,” the Herald American wrote on Nov. 29, 1953. “North and South Salina Streets, decked out with huge candy canes extending from the telephone poles, was bustling with activity from early morning to late afternoon.”
For the parents in those crowds, especially if they had their little ones with them, a stop at E. W. Edwards was a must.
Children came into Edwards in a constant stream, drawn into the department store by an outdoor sound system that pumped holiday music from its speakers.
Sidewalks would be filled with kids looking in at the decorative windows. While these displays often showcased toys that could be purchased inside, they were also used to tell stories.
In 1953, one of their windows showed a slumbering St. Nick dreaming of a white…
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