DaddyDubbs
Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
The Christmas Season brings with it a visit from Santa Clause at nearly every shopping mall in town, the bigger the town, the more Santas, all nice and warm inside a grandly decorated area designed for photos with Santa.
There is nothing at all wrong with that.
However, here is what I observed when I was at Michigan Tech in the mid 1970’s. The population in Houghton, Hancock and Michigan Tech were about 5000 to 5800 each, so about 16,000 total.
Santa came into Houghton on the back of a fire truck at about 6 or 7pm in late November or early December. He was escorted to a large wooden chair outside with real snow on the ground, and temperatures likely to be in the teens. The children waited in line to have a chance to sit on his lap and tell him their wishes for Christmas morning.
Santa was only in Houghton one night!
The following evening Santa came into Hancock on the back of a fire truck and sat outside in that town for one night.
These were the only two nights Santa would be seen, one night in Houghton and one night in Hancock. None to be found in stores (there were no shopping malls in the area in the 70’s).
I would guess Calumet and Laurium, twin cities about 12 miles north of Hancock, likely did the same.
When I was in my twenties I thought this was really special, and a wonderful way to keep the magic of Santa for the children for many years. After all, Santa has a lot of children to visit, and can’t stay more than a few hours before moving on to another town. Here I am some forty years later and I still remember how special that was.
After a call to the Hancock City Hall this past Monday morning, I learned that Santa has moved inside for one day following their Thanksgiving Parade, but he is still only in town for one day. This wonderful tradition is still observed.
hyvää joulua
Merry Christmas
(For those not familiar with Michigan, the Keweenaw Peninsula is the northern most part of the Upper Peninsula that juts into Lake Superior. Houghton and Hancock are located about 1/3 of the way up the peninsula and are separated by the Portage Canal. The area was originally settled mainly by Finnish and Croatian people and the main employment was either mining copper or logging.)
There is nothing at all wrong with that.
However, here is what I observed when I was at Michigan Tech in the mid 1970’s. The population in Houghton, Hancock and Michigan Tech were about 5000 to 5800 each, so about 16,000 total.
Santa came into Houghton on the back of a fire truck at about 6 or 7pm in late November or early December. He was escorted to a large wooden chair outside with real snow on the ground, and temperatures likely to be in the teens. The children waited in line to have a chance to sit on his lap and tell him their wishes for Christmas morning.
Santa was only in Houghton one night!
The following evening Santa came into Hancock on the back of a fire truck and sat outside in that town for one night.
These were the only two nights Santa would be seen, one night in Houghton and one night in Hancock. None to be found in stores (there were no shopping malls in the area in the 70’s).
I would guess Calumet and Laurium, twin cities about 12 miles north of Hancock, likely did the same.
When I was in my twenties I thought this was really special, and a wonderful way to keep the magic of Santa for the children for many years. After all, Santa has a lot of children to visit, and can’t stay more than a few hours before moving on to another town. Here I am some forty years later and I still remember how special that was.
After a call to the Hancock City Hall this past Monday morning, I learned that Santa has moved inside for one day following their Thanksgiving Parade, but he is still only in town for one day. This wonderful tradition is still observed.
hyvää joulua
Merry Christmas
(For those not familiar with Michigan, the Keweenaw Peninsula is the northern most part of the Upper Peninsula that juts into Lake Superior. Houghton and Hancock are located about 1/3 of the way up the peninsula and are separated by the Portage Canal. The area was originally settled mainly by Finnish and Croatian people and the main employment was either mining copper or logging.)
