“Santa Claus has just arrived at our store. He must have thought of every little boy and girl in Barrie, for never before has he brought such an array of ‘good things’. If you are good, Santa won’t disappoint you. He is going to make you happy with some of the following.”
This was the place to find pedal cars, wicker doll carriages, Blue Devil velocipedes with rubber tires, tea carts, toy pistols and caps, Silver Flyer sleighs with steering, child sized iron cook stoves, jack knives and much more.
The owners of the Otton Hardware shop at Five Points certainly weren’t shy about putting the pressure on local moms and dads to come through for the kids when they placed that large ad in the Northern Advance on Dec. 7, 1922.
The hardware store, not every child’s idea of a fun destination during the rest of the year, must have been a huge draw in the lead up to Christmas. Otton’s front window was all dressed up and the newly created Toyland was overflowing with the most sought-after gifts of the day.
This large 1922 toy display was a first for Barrie. Otton had modelled his Toyland on the highly successful yearly extravaganza that the T. Eaton Company put on in Toronto each holiday season.
Since about 1900, Eaton’s had been setting itself apart from its competitors by making the Eaton name synonymous with Christmas itself. The Eaton’s Santa Claus Parade began in 1905. In the 1920s and later, the parade ended at the Yonge and Queen Street store where Santa Claus would climb a ladder to the second floor where the very elaborate toy department was located.
By the end of the decade, there was a new player in Barrie. The chain of Walker Stores Ltd. had begun taking over local department stores and, in 1929, it opened up a Barrie branch where the Sarjeant & King Store had been on the north side of Dunlop Street west of Owen Street.
For a time, Walker’s Toyland was unrivaled as the place that every local little one wanted to attend. Each year, the Walker Store turned their second floor into a place of children’s Christmas dreams.
Of course, Santa Claus himself was there to receive each child’s secret Christmas present wish list. He gave each child a small gift, usually a little trinket or a scribbler notebook. Every toy purchase meant one ticket went into a draw for either a 28-inch-tall fancy dressed doll or a 4-foot coaster sled.
Eaton’s wasted no time in bringing their brand to Barrie but they met plenty of competition here. Newly arrived Zellers, just east of Walker’s, boasted a Toyland “chockful of gift thrillers” which included real fur cowboy chaps, Shirley Temple dolls with human hair, toy shotguns, English doll prams and a toy wringer washing machine that promised to “make a wee girl feel quite housewife-y.”
Across town, Whitty’s Drug Store in Allandale cleared out a large space to create a Toyland of their own which promised to be “the most modern Toyland in town.” In 1939, Whitty’s sold electric train sets and Cinema 8 movie cameras in a showroom complete with a fireplace hung with stockings and surrounded by a great variety of other toys.
In those days, it must have been quite a challenge for a parent to tow a small child down any street in Barrie’s business districts without being pulled into these tempting Toylands.
Each week, the Barrie Historical Archive provides BarrieToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past. This unique column features photos and stories from years gone by and is sure to appeal to the historian in each of us.
