<strong>Source: <em>Toronto Life</em>, December 1985</strong>.<br />
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Holiday hints: It never hurts to match your clothing and your wrapping paper.
<strong>Source: The <em>Toronto Sun</em>, December 19, 1972</strong>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.commerce-court.com/about/history">Commerce Court</a> was one of downtown's newest shopping options when this ad appeared.
<strong>Source: The <em>Toronto Sun</em>, December 12, 1979</strong>.<br />
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The merchants may have changed, but it still feels like 1979 when you walk through the architectural time capsule that is Cumberland Terrace.
<strong>Source: The <em>Globe and Mail</em>, November 29, 1969.</strong><br />
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We suspect none of the monkeys in the window wore shearling coats like <a href="http://torontoist.com/2012/12/ikea-monkey-ikea-monkey/">this year's favourite holiday simian</a>. Given the era, maybe a fringed jacket or two made it into the downtown department store's display.
<strong>Source: <em>Toronto Life</em>, December 1985</strong>.<br />
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It's an open secret that, as long as the harbour isn't iced up, Santa enjoys a quick swim break while delivering gifts along Queens Quay.
<strong>Source: <em>Toronto Life</em>, December 1985</strong>.<br />
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North of Steeles, downtown Woodbridge used Charles Dickens to lure shoppers during the mid-1980s.
As this Vintage Toronto Ads entry is being posted, last-minute Christmas shoppers are scurrying across the GTA. Odds are good that if you’re reading this before the big boxes and malls have shut their doors, you’ve finished fulfilling wish lists and are marking time before the traditional exchanging of gifts and testing of your stomach’s capacity.
If you’re procrastinating until zero hour to hit the stores, or if you enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes from a last-second blitz, perhaps our gallery of vintage holiday shopping ads will provide a final burst of inspiration. Or, if you think Christmas is an over-commercialized orgy of capitalism, enjoy the period ad design.
Click through the image gallery to read more about each ad.