7 Things Every Michigander Over 50 Remembers About Hudson’s at Christmas
At Hudson’s in downtown Detroit, kids could choose a White, Black or Hispanic Santa.
Many Michiganders over 50 remember the store making the season feel bigger.
Here’s what every Michigander over 50 remembers about Hudson’s at Christmas.
1. Santaland on the 12th Floor
Hudson’s put Santa on the 12th floor of its downtown Detroit store, in a Santaland that families reached by elevator.
An Hour Detroit account has a white-gloved operator calling out the stop.
Visitors then walked through fake snow and twinkling lights to reach Santa.
Once you got there, you told Santa what you wanted for Christmas.
The Detroit News reports that more than 250,000 children sat on Santa’s lap every season.
That’s a lot of laps.
What a Hudson’s Santaland Visit Included
Children left Hudson’s Santaland with a commemorative holiday coloring book.
After seeing Santa, families often went to the 10th-floor Yuletide shop to look at ornaments imported from Germany and Poland.
2. Tree of Lights
A 1955 photo shows lights on Hudson’s downtown Detroit building designed to look like a Christmas tree.
In the photo, you can even see window displays on the ground floor.
Hour Detroit describes a nine-story tree of lights that lit the front entrance facade.
It went up every Christmas.
Many people still link Hudson’s with Christmas lights.
3. Animated Windows
If you walked along the Woodward Avenue side of Hudson’s downtown Detroit store at Christmas, you passed windows of animated displays.
On the 15th floor, the display department spent much of the year planning the Christmas decorations, including mechanical windows with marching Santas.
A 1961 photo from the Detroit Public Library shows dolls in a Hudson’s window beneath a sign presenting “The Children’s Christmas.”
In 1960, a window display came with a sign advertising George Latshaw Puppets from Nov. 28 to Dec. 23.
Christmas music was piped onto the sidewalk.
A 1949 photo shows a crowd outside the store gathered to see Santa and his helpers.
A sleigh sat out front.
4. Key to the City
Hudson’s started Detroit’s Thanksgiving parade in 1924.
The final float carried Santa Claus, who stepped onto the Hudson’s marquee on Woodward Avenue to accept the key to the city.
For generations of families, the official holiday season didn’t start until that moment.
If you watched from the curb, you saw it begin.
Then came the elevators.
The next day, they whisked throngs of parents and children up to the toyland.
Psst! How much do you know about Detroit’s holiday traditions? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Holiday Traditions IQ
Answer nine questions on holiday traditions in Detroit and around Michigan. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Which storybook character rode on a float in the very first Detroit Thanksgiving parade in 1924?
5. Choice of Santas
If you brought your kids to Hudson's, you could choose a White, Black or Hispanic Santa.
The Detroit News reports that the museum's exhibit called the store one of the first in the country to offer that choice.
A 2025 report describes a Black Santa Claus and a white Santa for kids.
One Warren woman took her children to see the Black Santa at Christmas.
It mattered to her.
6. Toytown
A November 1952 photo of a Hudson's window shows a sign reading "Hudson's Toytown is open."
The children's toy floor was decked out in holiday decorations.
A 1957 photo from the Detroit Public Library shows the toy department during the Christmas season.
Reindeer stood in the background.
When toys overflowed in December, the store converted its 12th-floor auditorium into retail space, as a 1940s photo shows.
The museum's holiday exhibit featured a store within the store where kids could shop for family and friends.
If you shopped there as a kid, you may have been one of those shoppers.
7. Santa Bear
Hudson's Santa Bear arrived around 1985, after the downtown Detroit store had closed.
The exclusive stuffed bears were produced annually until 2007.
Many shoppers collected them all.
The retailer ceased to exist in 2001, with its stores first becoming Marshall Field's.
The Detroit Historical Society says the 2004 and 2005 bears were sold by Marshall Field's, formerly Hudson's.
If you collected the bears before 2001, you likely shopped at a Hudson's outside downtown Detroit.
Closing Day
Hudson's closed its downtown Detroit store on Jan. 17, 1983.
If you shopped there for Christmas, 1982 was your last chance.
Annual sales had fallen from a peak of $156 million in 1953 to $45 million in 1982, United Press International reported.
Dayton Co. had bought Hudson's in 1969.
Hudson's began losing customers in the 1970s to economic trouble and suburban stores.
By 1978, Hudson's had nine satellite locations in the Detroit area.
The building came down in an implosion on Oct. 24, 1998.
The Parade Today
Hudson's sponsored the parade until 1980.
The Detroit Renaissance Foundation took over until 1983.
The Parade Company organizes it today.
If you want to see it, America's Thanksgiving Parade is set for Nov. 26, 2026.
Bad Roads Cost Detroit-Area Drivers Nearly $3,000 a Year, a Report Found
Potholes are hard on any car.
Detroit-area drivers have good reason to care about their roads.
Bad Roads Cost Detroit-Area Drivers Nearly $3,000 a Year, a Report Found
6 Michigan Fall Color Drives That Aren't Worth the Weekend Traffic
Fall color looks great in a photo.
It looks a lot less great from a bumper-to-bumper line, and some of Michigan's best-known drives ask more of your weekend than the leaves give back.
6 Michigan Fall Color Drives That Aren't Worth the Weekend Traffic
