There’s no time like the holidays, and Vancouverites have celebrated the month of December since the beginning of our time. Looking back through history proves just how loved the Christmas season continues to be in this city.
Step back in time with these photos pulled from the archives to see how Christmas used to look in Vancouver:
Men, women, and children attend a Christmas party in 1908
Image: VPL, #7511
The Sanitary Markets meat and poultry shop during the busy Christmas season in 1918. Turkeys galore!
Image: VPL, #20633
Woodward’s department store decked out for Christmas in 1927
Image: VPL, #10419
The B.C. Electric Sales Room lights up brightly for Christmas in 1932
Image: VPL. #70431A
Inside the Marine Building on Burrard Street during the holidays
Image: VPL, #14664A
An old fashioned Christmas dinner, circa 1943
Image: Vancouver City Archives
Inside the Hudson’s Bay Company’s toy department while staff prepare for the 1948 Attorney General’s Christmas party
Image: VPL, #80728
The British Properties sale office tries to attract property buyers by decking the halls in 1949
Image: VPL, #81117
Children staying in a preventorium – a building for patients infected with tuberculosis – make a phone call to Santa in 1949
Image: VPL, #81109
Crates of Christmas Mandarin oranges are unloaded off the S.S. American Mail ship in 1949
Image: VPL, #81110
Vancouver Mayor Charles Thomson’s home at 6311 Churchill Street decorated for Christmas on a snowy day in 1949
Image: VPL, #81120
A reindeer holiday decoration lights up a pole on the corner of Hastings and Cambie Street in Gastown during the ’50s
Image: VPL, #40296
Vancouver City Hall completely lined with holiday lights in 1957
Image: VPL, #40214
Just days before Christmas in 1957, Georgia Street is swamped with shoppers outside the Hudson’s Bay Company
Image: VPL, #43369