The Freiman’s Santa Claus Train

Photo: Andrews-Newton Collection, City of Ottawa Archives

Wednesday, December 13, 2023 - 19:00 to 20:00

This lecture is now available on Heritage Ottawa's YouTube channel. 

Via ZOOM | CLICK HERE to register for this free lecture.

Between 1956 and 1972, children in Ottawa could start their celebration of the Christmas holidays with a ride on a very special train. Freiman’s Department Store chartered a special Santa Claus train on the Canadian National Railway that would take children and their chaperones from Ottawa to the “North Pole,” AKA the village of Vars, where Santa would be waiting to greet them.

Andrew Jeanes has been delving into the history of the Santa Claus train for almost twenty years, and will tell the story of Freiman’s—once one of Ottawa’s most successful independent department stores—the train, the stations it stopped at and the people who made this special Christmas railway excursion happen over its seventeen years of existence.

Speaker: Andrew Jeanes is a career public servant in the heritage conservation field, an amateur railway historian and an enthusiast of many different types of cultural heritage. He holds a degree in cultural studies from York University. Born and raised in Ottawa, and after considerable time living in Toronto, he now calls Kingston, Ontario home with his partner, daughter and two dogs.

Presented via ZOOM | Pre-Registration Required | CLICK HERE to register for this free lecture.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR ANDREX HOLDINGS.

 

Address: 
Canada