Historical holiday photos

Overcast skies and threats of rain failed to dim an enthusiastic welcome for Santa Claus in Spokane on Nov. 20, 1960. Children, anxious to make their Christmas requests, filed past the famous resident of the North Pole as he sat on a raised platform. (Photo Archives/spokesman-review)

Santa visits with the children in downtown Spokane during the 1960’s. (Photo Archives/spokesman-review)

A Christmas float travels through downtown Spokane on Dec. 2, 1968. (Photo Archives/spokesman-review)

A Christmas tree lights up Parkade Plaza in downtown Spokane on Dec. 3, 1971. (Photo Archives/spokesman-review)

An aluminum Christmas tree adds a little sparkle in Riverfront Park in Spokane on November 28, 1983. (Photo Archives/spokesman-review)

A child takes in the window displays at Crescent Department Store in 1971. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

One of the large Christmas displays in Spokane in 1958 was the huge Christmas tree made up of lights at the Crescent Department Store on West Riverside Avenue. The tree was about 75 feet high and used 4,500 lights. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

A look down downtown Spokane’s Main Street during the holiday shopping season shows the the Bon Marche’s Madonna and Child display, left, and a Santa Claus above the Crescent Department Store entrance, right, in this undated photo. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

In 1956, Riverside Avenue took on a bright look as the merchants turned out all of their decorative lights, leaving lit only the white Christmas lights attached to street lamps. The idea came from the retail trade bureau of the Chamber of Commerce. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Christmas decorations adorn Riverside Avenue on Dec. 12, 1928. This picture was taken at the corner of Riverside and Post. On the left is Lubin’s women’s apparel store, which opened in 1916 and had grown to 16,000 square feet and 35 employees in 1934. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

The streets of downtown Spokane are decorated for the holiday season in December 1948 in this photograph looking west on Sprague from Howard. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Rows of offices are lit to form a cross in the Paulsen Medical and Dental building in 1953. The decoration emerged from an agreement between the National Council of Churches and owners of the building. A similar cross was lighted on the Riverside portion of the building. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

The Paulsen building’s symbolic cross in downtown Spokane is seen from near Howard Street on the north side of the river in this 1951 photo. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

This undated photo shows the Lincoln First Federal building in downtown Spokane decorated for Christmas. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

A Christmas fir tree sits atop Spokane’s Lincoln Savings Building as it undergoes construction during the holiday season. Photo courtesy of Bethlehem Steel. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

A 50-foot blue spruce waits to be decorated in front of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce building on Riverside Avenue in November 1955. The Spokane Community Christmas Tree was donated by the J. Robert Henderson family. Firemen volunteered to wrap it in Yule trimmings. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Overcast skies and threats of rain failed to dim the welcome for Santa Claus in Spokane in November 1960. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Beginning in 1950, residents of Spokane’s Cannon Hill neighborhood met on Christmas Eve at the park to sing of carols. Pictured here in 1962 are, front row, from left: Kimberly Dunham, Mark Condon, Barbara Schoen and Mike Condon; back row, from left: Terry Schoen, Richard Schoen, Ann Condon and Kelly Dunham. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Four choirs combined to form a living Christmas Tree for a concert of carols at First Presbyterian Church in Spokane in 1954. The members of each choir are identified by their different robes. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Members of the American Legion’s child welfare committee unload boxes of Christmas apples for children in this undated photo. Tony Walters, of Okanogan, donated the fruit. From left are Emil Barnes, Charles Frazier, Donald Lawyer, Clifford Knight and Thomas Sheer. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Sledders prepare to slide down a hill at Manito Park during Christmas vacation in 1960. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Queen Sukoonya Daragaiya, a Dobermann pinscher owned by Lt. Anthony J. Lyons of the Spokane Naval Supply Depot, nurses seven newborn puppies under a Christmas tree in 1951. The puppies - six male and one female - were born Christmas morning. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Salvation Army workers Clarence Prothero, left, and William Frazier repaint and repair toys for older children during the 1946 Christmas season. The charity produced more than 2,000 toys for families in need that year. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)

Sun bathers and swimmers enjoy summerlike conditions at Liberty Lake’s Sandy Beach on Christmas Day in 1950, the warmest yuletide in 60 years. (Photo Archive / The Spokesman-Review)