Smithsonian exhibit looks at art and business behind seasonal spectacles

The heyday of elaborate store decorations and seasonal parades is some decades behind us, and a review of the best of the holiday traditions is now something you'd find in a museum.

The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., has created "Holidays on Display," an exhibition that opened earlier this month. Composed mainly of photographs and illustrations, the show looks at the art and business behind such seasonal spectacles as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Miss America Pageant boardwalk parade.

America has always loved a parade, or at least ever since the Colonial marches of the military units, and some annual marches have lasted for decades.

From the exhibit we learn that Santa's involvement in parades dates back to around 1909, when S.B. Call, a toy merchant in Springfield, Mass., donned a beard and red suit, decorated his wagon and paraded through town. The stakes were raised when Macy's entered the field in 1924, and raised even higher when the department store created a giant elephant balloon for its 1927 parade in New York City. From there, it was just a matter of time before Macy's became an enduring symbol of the start of the holiday season.

The Smithsonian show was mounted, said director Brent Glass, to help us understand the emotional responses people have to the holidays.

"When you drove around small towns in Pennsylvania right before the Thanksgiving parade, there would be empty chairs lining the streets. That's how important it was to people," explained Glass, who was the president of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission before coming to the Smithsonian.

The exhibition, housed entirely in one long room, manages to cover the art, the business and the spirit of this enterprise.