On Dec 1, 1922, F&R Lazurus Department store decided to sponsor a Christmas holiday parade with horse drawn floats in downtown Columbus. The parade pre-dates the huge Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade which didn’t start in New York until Nov 27, 1924.
Macy’s & Co. had gone public in 1922 and grew to encompass a full city block in Manhattan’s Herald Square. A one million square foot retail store opened just in time for the holiday shopping season in 1924, so they decided to throw a parade on Thanksgiving morning…for Christmas. The six mile parade route started in Harlem, ended at the store and was done in plenty of time so New Yorkers would be able to still witness the big football game of the day between Syracuse & Columbia at the Polo Grounds.
The Ohio State University Marching Band made its first appearance in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in 2018. They were given the honor of being the first band in the parade, performing ‘Lullaby of Broadway.’ Today, the parade attracts an estimated 3.5 million live spectators along its 2.5 mile parade route with more than 50 million viewers on television worldwide.
Meanwhile in Columbus, Lazurus’ Christmas parade was a holiday tradition for half a century. Initially the parade was held the day after Thanksgiving but was moved to the Sunday after. Much like Macy’s in New York, the parade route in Columbus ended at Lazurus’ downtown store which was ready & waiting to get you dashing (and spending) into the holiday spirit. Eventually the parade length stretched five miles, beginning at North Broadway in Clintonville and running straight down High Street to the Lazurus store.
Lazurus was a retail force in Columbus and became known over the years for their brilliant marketing and business decisions. This was just another in a long line that put them front and center with the market they so loved – Columbus.
For ten years or so in the 1930s and 1940s, Columbus had TWO Christmas holiday parades. Both drew fairly well. The Columbus Citizen newspaper (which merged with the Ohio State Journal in 1959) sponsored a Christmas parade downtown from 1937 to the early 1950s.
In 1945, in the Lazurus parade, store employees – an all male staff of 150 – marched to honor all the Columbus servicemen returning from the war.
The Columbus Citizen parade – in 1946 – featured former Miss America, Mrs. Janis Pollock, and her two children. In 1947, the parade continued to grow, attracting 150,000 spectators and included popular Citizen columnist Ben Hayes, accompanied by his mythical character Joe Spook. The largest turnout for the Columbus Citizen parade occurred in 1949 when an estimated 175,000 people turned out, despite the bitter cold. The parade that year was broadcast for the first time on local television WLW-C, channel 3 (later WCMH and now NBC4).
In the 1950s with television emerging in homes around town, local tv favorites began showing up in the parades, including – in the Lazurus parade – Flippo the Clown, local tv newscasters & Lucy from ‘Lucy’s Toy Shop’. The Lazurus Department Store downtown featured the delightful Talking Christmas Tree. He was a happy soul. He sang and he talked in riddles with all the boys and girls and he let them tweak his nose. Because of rising costs, however, the Lazurus parade was discontinued in 1971.
Ten years later 200,000 spectators showed up as the ‘Secret Santa Parade’ (sponsored by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce) began its run in downtown Columbus. With light snow fall, viewers stood seven deep in some areas along the 1.2 mile parade route. This parade featured one hundred units, including three 30-foot high giant helium-filled balloons – a clown, a cat, and an owl. Down East Broad and South High Streets the balloons had to be tugged down and squeezed under traffic signal wires fourteen times along the way. Each balloon was guided by at least twelve Boy Scouts.
Also, there were twenty four floats and twenty five high school bands, drill teams, & baton twirlers. Some spectators took to the spiral garage driveway at the Christopher Inn while others wrapped in blankets because of temperatures in the low 30s. Elvis walked the parade route to collect donations. Santa Claus – the grand marshal – was escorted by uniformed postal employees with mail bags to collect letters from children. And there was an eight-horse hitch pulling an antique circus wagon. The Secret Santa fund was established in 1957, purchasing Christmas gifts for children in need.
In 1984, two years before his passing, Woody Hayes served as Grand Marshal and was accompanied by the Ohio State University Marching Band.
The parade began losing steam, however, in the early 1990s and was discontinued in 1993. Santa’s last visit to Lazurus was 1994. The downtown store closed in 2004. The Lazurus Department Store name was retired and all stores converted to Macy’s in 2005.
Sources: On this Date in Columbus OH History by Tom Betti & Doreen Uhas Sauer; Columbus Unforgettables edited by Robert Thomas; ‘The Lazurus Holiday Parade’, Columbus Historical Society Nov 2024, Feb 2023; 101 Things you didn’t know about Columbus by Horace Martin Woodhouse (2010); As it Were by Ed Lentz; Vintage Postcards: Columbus, Ohio 1898 – 1950 by Richard Barrett, 2002; ‘For 50 years, the Lazurus Christmas parade brought holiday cheer to downtown Columbus’ by Kristen Newby, Dec 15, 2024, Columbus Dispatch, www.dispatch.com; Cbus Today, Dec 11, 2023, cbustoday.6amcity.com; ‘Lazurus’ Santaland was the most magical Christmas destination in Columbus’ by Chelsea Wiley, Nov 29, 2024, Columbus Navigator, www.columbusnavigator.com; ‘Holiday season brought crowds to Lazurus downtown’ by Angela O’Neal, Dec 1, 2024, www.aol.com; ‘The F&R Lazurus Department Store Christmas Parade Legacy’ by Patty Inglish MS, June 26, 2022, Hub Pages, www.discover.hubpages.com; 200,000 witness return of Santa parade by Mary Bridgman, Dec 6, 1981, Columbus Dispatch; Big Christmas Parade, Dec 4, 1981, Columbus Dispatch; The First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade by Christopher Klein, Nov 26, 2014, www.history.com; Andy Havens, YouTube, Nov 22, 2018; Featured picture is the Lazurus Christmas parade passing by the Lazurus store in 1955 courtesy of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.