1958: Motorists using the newest link of the Schuylkill Expressway (foreground) get a clear view of the city’s Merry Christmas and Happy New Year sign posted on the Girard Avenue Bridge. Letters are lighted at night.

1968: Santa Claus dances with youngsters from 21 schools and two orphanages during a Christmas party at the 19th Police District, 61st and Thompson Streets.

1954: Hanukkah candles are lighted by Rabbi Sidney Greenberg (right) on the lawn of Temple Sinai, Washington Lane and Limekiln Pike. Members of the junior choir chant holiday tunes.

1969: South Philadelphia tradition, block Christmas decorations, is under the direction of Frank Cervo in the 2200 block S. Rosewood Street. He adjusts candle on community creche.

1973: Symbols of Kwanzaa are displayed by Gerald Ojughana and Janet Whittaker in Germantown.

1948: Mrs. Martha Kashner of 6311 Girard Avenue, conductor of a PTC Route 42 trolley, surrounded by the holiday greens and flowers with which she decorates her car each day before leaving the barn. She says few of her passengers fail to smile in appreciation.

1973: SEPTA driver George Earl Young decorates his bus for Christmas in the depot at 19th and Johnston Streets.

1977: Six SEPTA drivers who will work Christmas Day stand together with hands-in and a Christmas tree behind them.

1938: X-mas broadcast from Eastern Penitentiary shows C5895 and C5896 playing their string instruments over the air. One of them goes free this week. The men are in front of a KYW microphone.

1971: An Israeli folk dance is performed by the Youth Group of Temple Judea, 6929 N. Broad Street, as part of a three day Maccabean Festival. The Festival will end tomorrow evening, with the lighting of the first Hanukkah candle.

1941: John Demnainyk, 825 N. Franklin Street, and his family worship in the Ukranian Church. With communicants of the Eastern Greek Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches they’re observing Christmas today–in acoordance with a 1,000-year-old custom based on the old Julian calendar, which differs from the present Gregorian calendar by 13 days. Here the Demnainyks sing Christmas carols beside a gaily decorated tree before eating holiday dinner at their home.

1935: Carol Singers of the Sarah D. Cooper Memorial M.E. Church, 63rd Street and Girard Avenue.

1972: How to really sing a Christmas carol is demonstrated by John Winston, 71, vice president of the senior citizens group at the East Germantown Recreation Center; Mrs. Lucy Smithers, 80, a group member, and Mrs. Gertrude Dixon (left rear) and Mrs. Betty Carson (right rear), members of The Elects of Faith Gospel Group. The singing highlighted the center’s first annual Christmas party.

1978: Shoppers at New Market in Philadelphia’s Society Hill section were recently treated to the Christmas carols of the Paderewski Polish Choral Society of Philadelphia along with the unique atmosphere of the shopping center.

1972: Guest of honor at the St. Barnabus Episcopal School Christmas Party Frosty the Snowman (center) listens to the Christmas wishes of David Wells (left) of 182 W. Durham Street, and Leah Smith (right) of 1228 S. 45th Street. Mrs. Lucille Dickerson of 623 E. Allen’s lane, secretary at the school at 5421 Germantown Avenue, designed the snowman costume and acted the role.

1977: A man adds a snowman decoration to his front yard.

1954: Crowd of people look up at Christmas decorations on the street. A Santa with sleigh and reindeer string across roofs of townhouses.

1956: Outside Christmas decorations brighten the holiday spirit in the 1700 block of South Cleveland Street.

1961: Christmas decorations light Wolf Street from 11th to 13th. Illumination project is community effort.

1978: Tedrick Nye Carlson of Southwest Philadelphia does not have his own house, so he decorates his car for Christmas. He says he has been doing it for the last six years. The decorations come off about three weeks after Christmas.

1960: Crane helps workmen raise a Christmas tree, more than 50 feet high, in City Hall Courtyard.

1971: Rabbi Moshe Moskowitz lights the thirty-foot tall, stainless steel menorah at Independence Mall.

1972: Teacher Fasaha Kazana and students at the African Free School in Germantown gathered around a table set for Kwanzaa, lighting the Nguzo Saba candle.

1962: Hanukkah is observed at the southern division of the Einstein Medical Center by nurses Joan Feely (left) and Mrs. Everette Walker and patients Eddie Rementer, Deborah Tinsley, and Barry Smith.

1969: James Mercer of Erdenheim and Eileen Callahan of Mt. Airy pose in front of the Christmas tree at City Hall, having come “to see the Christmas lights.”

1981: Mike and Debbie Bates begin their Christmas on the USS Ellison.

1981: A couple arrives at 30th Street Station from New York to visit parents in Wayne, PA for Christmas.

1951: Christmas tree in the City Hall headquarters of the Vice Squad is decorated with numbers bet slips, whiskey bottles, adding machine tape, race tip sheets, miniature slot machines, and other material seized during raids. Sergeants LeRoy Bowen (left) and Leonard O’Regan make last minute additions to the holiday tree during the Vice Squad’s annual Christmas party.

1978: With a live nativity scene in front of them, the All Philadelphia Boys Choir at the Old First Reformed Church, 4th and Race Streets, before going to New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral to tape a TV show to be seen Christmas Day.

1963: Photo shows Philadelphia Evening Bulletin building decorated with Christmas lights in the shape of a Christmas tree.

1964: Exterior of Bell Telephone buildling in Philadelphia at night. Windows are lit in the shape of a tree for the Christmas holiday.

1950s: Exterior view of Lit Brothers department store. Christmas decorations adorn buildings along Market Street.

1923: Photograph shows a drove of Christmas shoppers at the intersection of Market and 12th Streets.

1953: Reyburn Plaza, transformed into a Christmas playland by the Department of Recreation. A crowd gathers around a train ride for children. The stage is bedecked with an large illustration of Santa and flanked by holiday bells.

1980: The Gallery decorated for Christmas.

1971: Five-year-old Stacey Ciavardone and her nine-year-old brother Richard personalize Christmas stockings with the help of Gimbels attendant, Mrs. Ruth Johnson. The children’s aunt, Mrs. Linda Russell, supervises the decorating. 

1981: This family is entering Strawbridge & Clothier’s big Christmas display. They are walking through a tunnel that lights up as you enter it.

1956: Ready for the demands of the Christmas season, Federal Reserve Bank tellers George L. Arnold (front) and Edward T. Hannan stack millions of dollors of fresh U.S. money at 925 Chestnut Street. The Federal Reserve System, among its functions, supplies new coins and bills to commercial banks and acts as a reservoir of cash. Heaviest shipments are in December. In one week last year, $60,000,000 was distributed.

1961: Last-minute Christmas shoppers find the going rough as they try to push a car over the ice and snow on 69th Street near Chestnut Street. Traffic throughout the Greater Philadelphia area was slowed by the season’s first major snowfall.

1938: An armory full of Christmas cheer for the poor. The size of six-year-old Michael Smith, of 2222 Memphis Street, sets off 3,600 baskets of food before distribution by Salvation Army today at First Regiment Armory, Broad and Callowhill Streets.

1970: Richard Chapman watches as his ‘boys’ open their Christmas presents at the Philadelphia Society to Protect Children.

1959: Young shoe shiner observing Christmas display.

1955: Workers feed an evergreen tree into a chipping machine attached to a compactor truck on 17th Street near Johnston Street. The chippers are powered by gasoline motors and chop a large tree into tiny bits in a few seconds. Two of the devices, on loan from the Fairmount Park Commission, are at work on the holiday cleanup project.