There can be no Christmas without Santa. And here, Orlando Edwards plays a song for Silvera Castro (Santa Claus), the public relations manager at Caribbean Cement Co., at the company's Christmas treat for the children at the Bustamante Hospital for Children last Christmas. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer CHRISTMAS EVE 50 years ago was carnival time in downtown Kingston. Fifty years ago, the stores and streets downtown were heavily decorated and a Christmas tree could be found in the area now known as St. William Grant Park.
Thousands 'nuff nuff people' awaited Santa's arrival on balconies and along crowded sidewalks.
The Santa Claus Parade was a much-anticipated event. Streets were closed to traffic to clear the way for Santa's sleigh ride down King Street on to Harbour Street and Times Store, his final destination.
Vendors lined the streets with boxes full of lollipops and biscuits. Marching bands, troops of boy scouts and girl guides, people holding effigies of Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante, and floats carrying various beauty queens preceded Old Saint Nick.
The 'Jolly Man in Red' was ceremoniously greeted at the door of Times Store by its owners and the Mayor of Kingston.
One by one, the hundreds of children waiting in long lines to tell Santa their Christmas wishes, made their way on to his comfortable lap.
On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, markets all over the island were awash with vendors selling small toys, firecrackers, balloons and sweets of all kinds pinda (an African word for peanut) cakes, grater cakes and peppermint sticks.
Oranges and even American apples were distinctive features of the grand markets. Sorrel, chocolate tea and coffee flowed, as did the Christmas carols and a merry banter between vendors and customers.
On Christmas Day some markets were decorated with streamers, large accordion-style bells, and balloons. Many were decked out in fancy clothes, including bright hats purchased upon entering the Grand Market. Everyone came to town for Grand Market and the celebrations lasted throughout the day and well into the night.
Today the products and food might have changed, but the spirit is the same.
These were times when children and adults alike really believed in honouring traditions of peace.
