Many happy returns

Many WORDS: CAITLIN SYKES HAPPY RETURNS

Farmers Trading Company founder Robert Laidlaw was a visionary entrepreneur whose retail innovations included free bus services and grand tearooms for shoppers – and a parachuting Santa

In 1937 the main attraction of the Farmers Santa Parade was airdropped (with parachute) over Auckland Domain. He ultimately landed in the park’s lily pond before making his way – slightly more sedately – via float to the retailer’s flagship Hobson Street store.

Such showstopping moments cemented the parade as a ‘must see’ for Aucklanders and have undoubtedly helped it endure.

“Robert Laidlaw was quite a maverick, very innovative, and he was also a committed Christian and philanthropist,” notes Pam Glaser, Farmers Santa Parade General Manager.

“The Santa Parade obviously made Farmers stand out, but it was something he did to genuinely bring joy to the community.”

Following a tradition that began with Laidlaw’s first ‘grand parade’ in 1934, the event is back in 2022, after it was forced online in 2021 due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

The intent to bring joy remains, says Pam, but today’s parades are on a scale far beyond even Laidlaw’s imagination, which in 1934 spawned decorated carts pulled by “gaily decked” horses walking alongside a handful of children’s characters.

Around 4000 people take part in the country’s biggest Christmas parade, watched by an estimated 100,000 who line the route, and many more who watch from buildings above. Alongside contracted performers and community groups – from cosplay to roller derby to dance – participants include 1200 individuals who apply

to be in the parade and wear supplied costumes. Another 800 volunteers help behind the scenes.

Farmers gifted the parade to the city in 1991 and it’s since been run by the Auckland Children’s Christmas Parade Trust; Pam’s long association with the parade spans that transition.

After immigrating to New Zealand from South Africa, her first job was in Farmers’ marketing division, which was responsible for the Santa Parade. She was a few years into her role when the parade was gifted to the city, and the trust asked her to run it.

“And I’ve done it ever since,” she says. “There’s so much history for people with the parade; we have people whose children and now their grandchildren have become involved. There’s a lot of goodwill and loyalty in the parade community.”

When the parade was owned by Farmers, all the company’s Auckland staff held ‘parade jobs’ alongside their day jobs, explains Pam. “The 2000 parade volunteers we have today, their equivalent used to be Farmers’ staff and they were the envy of Aucklanders because outsiders generally couldn’t participate. It was very exclusive.”

The ownership change also impacted traditional aspects of the route, most obviously its start and end points at the landmark Farmers store on Hobson Street.

It’s the site where, in 1914, Laidlaw first constructed a warehouse for his mail order company Laidlaw Leeds.

This became open to the shopping public in 1921 following Laidlaw Leeds’ merger with the Farmers Union Trading Company to form the Farmers Trading Company, and a major building expansion.

Subsequent innovations – such as the Roy Lippincottdesigned tearooms, a rooftop children’s playground and free buses to shuttle shoppers to and from the Queen Street and Karangahape Road strips – made the building a place of memory for many Aucklanders and visitors to the city.

Farmers was also responsible for New Zealand’s first multistorey carpark, which it built on the corner of Wyndham and Hobson Streets, and also played a role in the Santa Parade.

It’s an event tradition (and one that continues today) to host ill and special needs children and their families in a VIP area.

Pam recalls how special seating was erected for these guests on two levels of the carpark, offering a plum view of the parade, and afterwards the guests enjoyed a lavish afternoon tea prepared by the Farmers tearooms’ chef.

For many years (from 1960), also standing on the corner of Hobson and Wyndham Streets, was Farmers’ giant Santa, which beckoned to shoppers from the front of the store over the festive season.

Pam recalls the massive steel and fibreglass structure lying under canvas in the lower reaches of the Hobson Street store on Santa’s off-duty months, and how every three years lingerie firm Bendon (a Farmers’ supplier) would make a new corset for his beckoning finger mechanism.

After subsequently making his way around other homes, Santa fittingly carried out his final festive duties fronting Farmers’ store on the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets, before retiring in early 2020.

The continually changing face of the city has also affected the parade’s 1.6-kilometre route. More recently, the parade’s starting area on Mayoral Drive has been squeezed due to work on the City Rail Link; and changes to make Queen Street (which accounts for the bulk of the route) more pedestrian and cycle friendly has narrowed the parade’s path to two lanes.

But as it heads towards its 90th year, the Auckland Christmas tradition continues.

“The fact that we’re back this year is amazing,” says Pam, “and we’re going to shout it from the rooftops.”