For Day 12 of our Advent Calendar, Senior Librarian Louise Birch looks at the closest thing Leeds had to the store from the movie Miracle on 34^th Street. Lewis’s department store opened in 1932 on the widened Headrow.  Every Christmas Lewis’s provided beautiful Christmas displays, becoming citywide legendary in the 1970s and 80s. This displays were often for children, and continued up on the third floor in Santa’s Grotto.

The store became Allders in the 1990s, finally closing in 1996 when the buildings were redeveloped into different shops and offices.

The Genie emerging from Aladdin’s lamp. There is a storybook with red and gold lettering in the foreground made to look as if it has been left open at the appropriate page.

The Pied Piper of Hamlyn with children dancing around the piper as he plays a tune before they follow him into the hillside.

A scene from Cinderella. The two ugly sisters can be seen preening themselves at their well-lit dressing tables while Cinderella stands in the shadows with head bowed. A storybook is ‘propped open’ at the appropriate page.

Images c.1970s & 1980s, courtesy of the Leodis.net website

See you tomorrow for more Advent items