But in a saga worthy of its own feel-good Christmas movie, six former employees of the department store have joined to re-create Santaland — Mondays through Saturdays at One Oxford Centre and on Sundays in the Theater Square box office in the Cultural District during the holiday season.
4 comments:
I haven't been to see a department-store Santa for many years, but the photos from those trips will always be centerpieces in our family's photo albums. Santa is such a big part of the holidays, especially for children, and so the effort put in by this small group of individuals really could be a feel-good Christmas movies story. What they are doing is something magical-banding together to recreate something they feel the city needs regardless of the challenges that they will face. Reading the article, its obvious that what they are doing is not for profit: they put so much of themselves into this project and are willing to make the impossible happen with just five people, all because of what they think the city will miss during the holiday season. I'd be interested in seeing how it all works out, as they have put a lot into this and it only works during a short snippet of the year...but at least Santa will still be in Pittsburgh this year.
This is a truly heartwarming story. In such a forward, future facing society, traditions can often fall by the wayside. Santaland in particular would have been a truly tragic loss, in that so many generations of Pittsburghers have cherished that tradition. The loss of such a community event due to corporate reasons would have made the whole situation that much sadder.
I genuinely believe the efforts of the former employees, under the guidance of Ms. Stapleton, will go very far, and resonate deeply within the larger community. Even though the actual production will not be the same, the community is much more than just the focus of this project; the community *is* the heart of the project. Perhaps Santaland is better off in this way, with members of the community who are truly invested in enhancing the experience of this time of year for the community. Truly, this is in the spirit of the season.
Department store Santa has always been everyone’s highlight of the year I believe. Not only children but also adults. It’s sad to here that Macy’s Downtown is closed. I heard from several people that it’s because due to the poor planning in the past when they just bought all the department stores to create the biggest allies or so and it came back to bite them now. This brings me back to when I was a child and one of the biggest department store in the city at that time was closed due to the economy crashed. I remembered the first year when it closed they still opened some area that they used to install all the decorations for people to pay and walked in while the building is still on before it got torn down. Which I remembered it was quite a special time for me as a child. I would be interested to go see the Oxford Centre and see what it’s like.
This article goes to show that traditions don’t just die. While it may be true that traditions do fade away after time, they usually don’t just stop. This also goes to show a sense of community. While this could easily have been forgotten about and pushed into history, it shows a true sense of community and what the people are will to do to keep traditions alive. This doesn’t have much to do with theater with the exception that theater also has its traditions and works together as a community. Why they’ve set up an LLC, I’m not sure. I suppose this is to become a legitimate organization and raise funds. I wonder if they are going to do other things throughout the year or if all of their efforts are going to their once a year Santa event. I think that because of the strong sense of tradition and community, this event will continue to grow.
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