Photos: Celebrating Christmas at Coddingtown

Before there was online retail and Cyber Monday deals to make holiday shopping more convenient, there were mail-order catalogs and trendy new shopping malls.

For decades, malls have been at the epicenter of Christmas — cheery carols greet shoppers, festive lights and tinsel adorn store windows and children line up to meet Santa Claus. The tradition lives on, though not as exuberant as it once was due to modern Americans’ penchant for e-commerce.

There are about 700 malls left in the U.S. today, down from around 2,500 locations in the 1980s, when shopping malls were all the rage. Nick Egelanian, president of retail consulting firm SiteWorks, told the Wall Street Journal that there would be only about 150 malls left in the country 10 years from now.

Santa Rosa’s Coddingtown Mall opened in 1962 as an open-air shopping center. In 1979, Coddingtown was enclosed, becoming the first indoor mall in the city. The Santa Rosa Plaza mall would be built shortly after, in 1983.

In its heyday, Coddingtown was packed with patrons eager to shop, eat and socialize in a lively communal space. The weeks leading up to Christmas would be the busiest, most eventful time of the year at the mall.

In the 1960s, Coddingtown went all out for Christmas. Small pine trees dotted along the plaza were dressed in bulbs. Garlands and dazzling lights were strung from building to building. Santa Claus arrived at Coddingtown after Thanksgiving to meet with children each day until Christmas. Each December, Coddingtown would host a free raffle where people could win extravagant prizes, from a Packard Bell Multiplex Stereo to a new Chevrolet.

During the 1970s, Coddingtown hosted free rides for children on “Santa’s Sleigh-Ride Train” throughout December. In 1975, kids could meet Santa and his elves at “Santa’s House” in Coddingtown, which also hosted free movies, puppet shows, band concerts and other attractions during the month.

Santa would keep coming back to Coddingtown through the ‘80s, but now with animatronic deer, teddy bears and other characters taking up residence at Santa’s Village. Members of the Redwood Empire Ballet would perform their routines at the mall for shoppers, including “The Nutcracker” and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

By the ‘90s, Coddingtown still lit up with colorful holiday cheer, though the fanfare of mall carols and ballet performances had started to die down. Santa never missed a chance to visit children at the mall, where he had a new Toyland filled with over-sized toys.

Temporary holiday shops started popping up more during this time as well. Tannenbaum, a shop known for its Yuletide decorations, opened from Thanksgiving to the end of December offering an array of Christmas decor. “You won’t find a bigger ornament selection this side of San Francisco,” said co-owner Arlene Kohn in a Nov. 25, 1993, Press Democrat article. “There are over 10,000 different items in the store.”

You won’t see Tannenbaum in Coddingtown anymore, but rest assured, Santa Claus will still be there during the month of December until Christmas for photo ops with the kids.

See the gallery above for photos of Christmastime at Coddingtown Mall through the years.