Timmins, Ont., Nov. 25 (AP) — Santa Claus came off a poor second-best Saturday in his bout with Timmins’ children. His float in the annual parade was broken and his loudspeaker put out of commission in a small-scale riot.
At one point pop-eyed youngsters — 3,000 of them — watched Saint Nick, his white beard angrily blowing, strike out wildly at teen-agers mobbing his float for bags of candy.
About half the kids didn’t get any goodies after the float halted to allow youngsters to walk up steps to greet Santa.
The press became so great that those on the float became alarmed. They began heaving the candies into the crowd to ease off the pressure. That made it worse. A dozen fist fights broke out when knots of boys strove to get the candy.
When the scene cleared, the yard was strewn with children’s gloves, overshoes, candies tramped into the earth and torn bags. The streets were full of irate mothers going home with weeping, empty-handed kids.
This story was published in the Nov. 26, 1951, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
