At the time of his passing, Hartley Neita was in the process of writing a series for The Sunday Gleaner on Christmas yesteryear. He submitted this article two days before his death.

ONE OF the pleasures of my past Christmases was the annual Santa Claus Parade in Kingston sponsored by Times Store.

It heralded the beginning of the Christmas season.

It was an hour-long spectacle which started at the Kingston Race Course at ten o'clock in the morning three Saturdays before Christmas Day, wound its way down East Street, turned right on East Queen Street, turned left on West Parade to Victoria Park, right on South Parade, and finally left on King Street.

It ended at Times Store, which was about three stores above Harbour Street.

Some of these street names and the place names will be unfamiliar to Jamaicans under the age of 21, so for their benefit I will explain that the Kingston Race Course is now National Heroes Park, and Victoria Park is now the St William Grant Park. Strange, it is how things change when time flies.

Family affair

Thousands lined the sidewalks on either side of the route. It was a family affair with grandparents, parents and their children, and their godparents if they had no children of their own.

The parade, which was led by police motorcyclists, consisted of floats, orchestras and mannequins interspersed with troops of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, Boys and Girls Brigades, the Jamaica Military Band and the Alpha Boys Band. Dancing between them were mannequins of Louise Bennett and Ranny Williams, and Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante.

The parade was organised by Eric Coverley, who also produced the mannequins with the help of a young designer named Leslie Kiddoe.

The tree main floats were those with Miss Chinese Jamaica and her attendants, Miss Jamaica and her ladies-in-waiting, and, of course, Santa Claus himself.

When Santa's float arrived at Times Store, he was usually met by the mayor of Kingston and the town clerk. Incidentally, at that time, there was only one mayor in Jamaica.

The mayor and the town clerk escorted Santa Claus to his throne inside Times Store. Meanwhile, children lined the sidewalk stretching to Parade. Slowly, they walked to the store where the girls sat on Santa's knees to have their photographs taken, while the boys merely shook his hand. Parents, of course, paid for these photographs which they collected at the store two days later. They also received a gift package from Santa, which was also paid for by the parents.

It was, of course, a great promotional project by the store. Children and their parents came from all over the island.

In later years, Abe Issa introduced Santa's daughter, a beautiful young miss, but she never had the magic of her dad.