The department store Santa.
Stores began to advertise Christmas shopping in 1820, and by the 1840s,
newspapers were creating separate sections for holiday advertisements,
which often featured images of the newly-popular Santa Claus. In 1841,
thousands of children visited a Philadelphia shop to see a life-size Santa
Claus model. It was only a matter of time before stores began to attract
children, and their parents, with the lure of a peek at a “live” Santa Claus.