12/16/1960-Chicago, IL- Too embarrassed for words, four-year-old Eddie Waymel tries to cover his giggles while attempting to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. The youngster just couldn’t seem to get the words out during his meeting with Santa at a Chicago department store. Maybe the latter’s beard tickled Eddie’s fancy.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree loaded onto a barge makes its way down the Hudson River Wednesday, Nov. 12, 1997, in New York. The trip over the George Washington Bridge was getting tougher and tougher. The Lincoln Tunnel was too much of a squeeze. So the tree will be forsaking its annual highway commute and traveling by boat this year to Rockefeller Center.

Television actor Emmanuel Lewis rehearses with the Radio City Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall for a one-hour holiday television variety special entitled "Mr. T and Emmanuel Lewis In A Christmas Dream," Nov. 21, 1984.

With Christmas just five days away youngsters swarm around the toy corner of a Tokyo department store to play with TV games, December 20, 1981.

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts-Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders-held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.” They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.

A pair of lovers are entranced by the beauty of the scene after the traditional Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was lighted. The couple is framed by wire snowmen on the Channel Gardens. The 50-year-old, 67-foot white spruce is the 30th tree to be raised in the Center for Christmas.

Walter Cronkite and his family gather around the piano at Christmas to sing.

Animals destined for the stage of Radio City Music Hall in New York on Nov. 13, 1986 are led to the stage door by their co-stars, the Rockettes dancers. A variety of animals, including camels, sheep and donkeys, will star in an annual Christmas production.

Young boy in pajamas play the drums in his living room.

Children Peeking Around Corner at Christmas Tree

Santa’s Satellite, where the sleigh and reindeer are old hat for Santa Claus this year, as the jolly old gent makes his first appearance via earth satellite in Brothers Department Store. Santa zoomed in to the Allentown Fairgrounds in a shower of “jet” smoke at the annual Santa Claus arrival party.

Two young women display their holiday hairdos, each with 42-inch hair decorated with tinsel and ornaments. Claudette Ackrich’s hair is decorated with tinsel, and Giselle Roc’s hairstyle consists of Christmas tree balls. Both women have never had their hair cut.

This is a night view of the famous christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, seen through the Channel Gardens from Fifth Avenue, in December 1955.

11/29/1946-Hollywood, CA- Santa Claus is surrounded by a bevy of scantily clad movie starlets as his $25,000 “sleigh” moves down “Santa Claus Lane,” in Hollywood.

Christmas may be three weeks away for us, but it is here for the children who tour Toyland in Bamberger’s Department Store in Newark laughing, lingering and longing. The Moppets make an interesting and sometimes touching study. Here, a little girl has fallen in love with the dolls. Can you imagine anything as wistful as the eyes of the little girl as she peers into the case. Let’s hope they all get what they want from Santa.

12/9/1952-New York: Nearly 500 orphans from the metropolitan area found “daddies for a day” in members of the Young Men’s Board of Trade who conducted them on a tour of Gimbel’s toy department and provided each with a $5 bill to use to buy anything they wanted. Photo shows some of the kids touching and appreciating a life size doll on the counter.

Children sit in front of the fireplace on the night before Christmas. Undated photograph.

12/13/1947- New York, NY: The Christmas shopping rush. With only ten shopping days left before Christmas, buyers throng the main floor of a Macy’s department store December 13th.

Jacqueline Kennedy with the children on Christmas morning. She sits on the floor, holding John on her lap, and Caroline stands nearby in her nightgown. Several stockings hang from the mantle.

Little Craig Smith looks around for enemy planes as he daydreams in a toy fighter plane. This model fighter plane reflects the spirit of wartime America, a country which may experience shortages in toys at Christmastime due to the need to support the war effort.

One of the largest crowds ever seen here filled State Street from sidewalk to sidewalk when Santa Claus arrived here today. An estimated half-million children and parents welcomed St. Nick.

Toddlers awaiting adoption at the Homeless Children’s Aid Society, rehearse their Christmas party songs. December 01, 1934.

Washington, D.C.: Mr. T, of the television show the A-Team, poses as Santa Claus to help First Lady Nancy Reagan unveil the White House Christmas decorations. December 12, 1983.

Singer John Denver, with children, aged 6-10, at a taping session Nov. 15, 1979 for his upcoming holiday television special, “John Denver and the Muppets, A Christmas Together.” The show was broadcast on ABC-TV, Dec. 5, 1979, 8-9 pm. Denver told the yuletide story of “Silent Night” to his small guests, and they are joined by Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and all the famed Jim Henson Muppets in sing the the traditional carol.

London children enjoying themselves at a Christmas Party, Dec. 25, 1940, in an underground shelter.

Parade participants hold ropes attached to the Santa Claus parade balloon as it collapses during the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

11/26/1939- Hollywood, CA- Hollywood, film capitol of America, cast aside the serious side of life and went into a gala holiday mood with its recent Christmas Parade. Here is a picture of Hollywood Boulevard, the film capitol’s main thoroughfare that has been rechristened Santa Claus Lane for the holiday season, brilliantly illuminated as thousands of Southlanders turned out to see Santa Claus and movie celebrities take part in the gala parade.

Construction workers line up for pay beside the first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York in 1931. The Christmas tree went on to become an annual tradition and a New York landmark. St. Patrick’s Cathedral is visible in the background on Fifth Avenue.

Men, women, and children assembled around a table spread with cakes, biscuits, and crockery.

Children looking at Xmas toys in shop window.

Picture taken 25 December of soldiers taking rest close to a small Xmas tree, on their position at the Hill 875 near Dakto, few days after the North Vietnamese Army made a massive assault.

The annual Christmas tree market which was held on West Street across from Pier 21, near Duane Street, New York City, between 1910 and 1915.

Christmas at Windsor Castle is shown here with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip shown putting finishing touches to Christmas tree, in a photo made recently during the filming of the joint ITV-BBC film documentary, The Royal Family.

Santa Claus with Christmas toys on a sled drawn by white turkeys. ca 1909.