By Lauren Ventura | SDUN Editor

The Toyland Parade was a holiday tradition that began, by many accounts, around or before the Great Depression of 1929 and dazzled the streets of North Park for years until it sputtered out entirely in the 1970s due to lacking retail involvement and an economic slump.

Now, after several starts and stops, the Toyland Parade is back and organizers are attempting to outdo themselves this year for the parade’s 47th birthday by encouraging more community involvement than ever before. They expect it to attract 5,000 attendees this year, if not more.

“North Park wasn’t called the heart of San Diego for nothing,” Kristen Edwards, owner of Antique Refinishers, said of the area where she was born and raised. Edwards has seen North Park go through most of its ups and downs, and said the collapse of the parade was one of the most detrimental, as it used to be a huge tourist attraction before its demise.

“In San Diego, the Toyland Parade was almost as popular as the Mother Goose Parade in El Cajon,” she said.

In true community spirit, Edwards and her husband, Patrick, set out to create a the North Park Business Improvement District for North Park with the intention of bringing the parade back. So, in 1985, they did just that with the help of several other local business owners, and created the BID.

Businesses located within BID boundaries of University Avenue from 28th to Florida Street, and 30th Street from Howard to Redwood, pay an annual fee for services, such as enhanced infrastructure, security, and graffiti removal, street and sidewalk cleaning, business assistance programs, and marketing campaigns.

By 1996 the fruits of their labor had paid off and the North Park BID was selected by the City of San Diego to be the pilot project for the national Main Street program in the San Diego area. Now coined the North Park Main Street (NPMS) association, NPMS took over managing the parade in 2008 from the hands of the Lions Club who ran it previously for 10 years.

“We don’t just focus on supporting small, local businesses, we also aim to preserve the historic significance of this neighborhood,” Elizabeth Studebaker, executive director of NPMS, said of its decision to take on the task of resurrecting the patinaed parade.

At one time, the Toyland Parade was the second largest parade in all of California, second only to the Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, said Studebaker. The goal is to bring the parade back to its full regalia and make it, once again, the gem of North Park. A task that has not proven easy as a quick survey of locals confirmed that many had never heard of the parade or knew it has been happening since the ‘80s.

In working to make the parade more accessible to the community, as well as the large affair it was during its heyday, Studebaker and NPMS made several significant changes to its overall structure. The first order of business was the decision to remove the marching band competition.

“At first we felt so guilty for getting rid of the competition, then, when we removed it, amazingly the marching band enrollment doubled,” Studebaker said. “It saved the parade more than $5,000 and gave the bands more freedom in which songs they could perform. Last year the students played the Rolling Stones—it was great!”

But perhaps NPMS’s most significant change is the addition of a Holiday Fair to this year’s event.

The fair will occur directly after the parade ends behind the North Park Birch Theatre at 29th Street and North Park Way, and will include a bevy of family-friendly activities, such as face painting, hands-on craft projects, puppet shows and, most importantly, a special appearance by Santa Claus himself. Although most of the activities are free, donations are suggested with proceeds going directly to the area schools that provide the activities for fair.

Even more exciting said Studebaker will be the addition of an original San Diego streetcar or trolley to be presented in the parade.

The North Park Trolley Lines were in service from 1912 to 1939, and today only three of the original streetcars are known to still exist. San Diegan Christian Chaffee acquired all three and will be generously donating his time and money to present one of these original streetcars from his storage unit during the parade.

Since 2002, talks between community leaders and city officials have been ongoing regarding the proposed revival of the streetcar route for San Diego, which would connect North Park with downtown. Plans have consistently stalled due to funding issues, among a litany of physical and operational constraints.

Studebaker explained that the presentation of the streetcar in the parade is intended to reboot the conversation on the proposed trolley, and provide onlookers with a chance to see a part of San Diego history making its way down University Avenue.

Joe Schloss, 87, has lived in San Diego all his life and has operated his family business, A&B Sporting Goods, in North Park for the last 60 years; he’s a big proponent of the Toyland Parade and would love to see interest in it grow.

“I have tremendous memories of the parade. I think we just need more people to remember the ritual and honor it again—it’s truly a wonderful affair,” he said.

Although the parade still does not net much income, according to NPMS only about $2,000 a year, it does receive the necessary funding from donations, which are integral to its existence.

“We don’t earn much profit from the parade, but it really is a fun event for businesses and residents to be involved in,” Studebaker said. “Even though it costs about $15,000 to put the parade on, it’s a rich tradition for the community that deserves to be observed.”

For more information regarding the Toyland Parade, visit toylandparade.com or call (619) 294-2501.