FESTIVE MAGIC
Santa’s Cave celebrates 100 years
‘‘‘My daddy took me to visit Santa. I was a bit of a shy kid and was a little scared.’’
Vanessa Shaw
Christmas comes but once a year and so does Palmerston North’s Santa’s Cave. For 100 years, the cave has existed, and 99 of those have seen it switch on its lights and dial up the magic of Christmas.
The one year it didn’t was because of a polio epidemic during World War II, when many things came to a standstill. Apart from that, the Santa’s Cave has become a consistent and enduring icon in Palmerston North.
The cave began its life at Collinson and Cunninghame, a department store on Broadway Ave started by two very industrious and progressive men.
Leopold Collinson and John Cunninghame started off with a small drapery and clothing store and went on to scrape together all they had to fund a bigger premises. They wanted to make their store the best in town.
Part of that ethos was to do things for the community and 1918 was a time of great struggle, nationally and locally. Soldiers were returning from the tail end of World War I and a flu epidemic struck hard and fast.
It was a Christmas that needed to be particularly uplifting and Leo Collinson had a plan.
Tony Rasmussen, programme Developer at Te Manawa explains: ‘‘He organised a little Christmas display and the idea for that, we believe, came from an employee who had come over from England who had been a Santa at a department store in Lewisham in London.’’
Plans were dreamt up of something bigger, a Santa’s Cave of grand proportions, a real Christmas grotto. And once the upheaval of war had been moved through, those dreams became reality.
It was a way, says Rasmussen, to ‘‘exit a period of sadness’’.
There were mechanically animated circus characters complete with clowns, acrobats and animals that stood in rainbowlit scenery. A winding magical maze sparkled. The tradition had begun and generations of children were entranced.
Donna Hippolite has fond memories of the Santa’s Cave back when it was in Collinson and Cunninghame.
Her childhood memories of Christmas all find their way back to the Santa’s Cave and she looked forward to it every year.
‘‘Mum would get us all dressed up and we would go down there to line up. We would just be so excited. There was a particular smell I can still remember and we would get more and more excited as we got closer. It was magical and we went every year. I took my own kids and then when we moved away to Australia we would still time our trips home around Christmas. The Santa’s Cave would be the first thing we would do. I used to pinch other people’s kids to take when mine were grown up.’’
Talk to others and similar memories come forth with wistful, dreamy looks. The twinkling lights, the winding maze of displays that ended up at Santa and the little carousel ride.
Anthony Behrens remembers the present from Santa’s lucky dip. ‘‘I was always given a girl’s toy because I had quite long hair’’.
The department store was sold to Farmers Trading Company in 1983 and the tradition continued. Vanessa Shaw remembers it well.
‘‘I first remember visiting in roughly 1988. My daddy took me to visit Santa. I was a bit of a shy kid and was a little scared. I found the black walls with the luminescent imagery both a bit scary, but also rather whimsical. I was propped up beside him for the photo and given a present to hold – how exciting.
‘‘Except, once the photo was taken, he took the present back. I didn’t really get the concept of it being a prop, so I then cried.’’
Shaw’s father then became one of the Farmers’ Santas and she says it felt very special for her family to become ‘‘part of the legacy that is the Santa Cave and the generations of memories associated with it’’.
‘‘Those clockwork figurines take me straight back to my childhood. I loved the spinning kittens and the use of light and mirrors. It’s a place that seems to transcend time and transport you back to that place of childhood where life was simpler and we all knew how to dream big – that is the power of the magic of Christmas.’’
In 2010, Santa’s Cave found a new home at Te Manawa, where it is looked after and preserved by the Te Manawa Museum Trust. The annual display didn’t miss a beat after having an overhaul and a spruce up in 2012 and now with it’s 100th birthday looming, Te Manawa wants to celebrate the enduring icon.
Rasmussen says Te Manawa is thinking about what it can do in 2018 to mark the occasion.
‘‘What we are really keen to do is for people, not only in Palmerston North, but across New Zealand and perhaps even overseas, to participate. So we would love to hear from people if they have a memory, a story, or something that they got from the cave out of the lucky dip.
‘‘We would love to talk to people and maybe share their story at the centenary next year.
‘‘Photos, objects, anything that we could display would be welcomed. We are really hoping there will be things tucked away.’’
It wouldn’t be Christmas without it and Santa’s Cave will be coming out of its boxes soon and transforming its corner of Te Manawa.
A shake off, a shine up, a brush up on the ‘‘ho, ho, hos’’ and Christmas will once again be alive and well in Palmerston North, because the magic never gets old, not even when it turns 100.
❚ If you have any information or items that you would like to share contact Tony Rasmussen: tony.rasmussen@temanawa.co.nz