Home of Carolina Circle Mall

Introduction

Easter, Fourth of July, and Halloween at Carolina Circle Mall were all pretty exciting. However, how did Carolina Circle Mall celebrate Christmas during late November and December? I don't know. Go to some other website! Just kidding!

Now that I got that really bad joke off my chest, let us continue. Why? Because when you're at Home of Carolina Circle Mall, Christmas is 365 days a year. Well, 366 days if its a Leap Year.

This section will mainly focus on the Carousel Era, mainly because I don't know much about Christmas during the Ice Rink Era, except one time in the late '70s, the mall's Santa Claus rode on a sleigh across the Ice Chalet.

The Big Kick-Off

At least up until recent years, the Christmas Season officially started when Santa Claus appeared at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. As soon as that occurred, Christmastime was here.

The day after Thanksgiving has always been the day when people get out of bed really early in the morning to go to big Christmas sales at various stores. Since 2006, Four Seasons Mall has gone as far as opening at 1:00 in the morning!

But this isn't Home of Four Seasons Mall, so we'll immediately head to Carolina Circle Mall. This mall was no exception to the Day After Thanksgiving rule. In the early-mid 1990s, I remember visiting Carolina Circle Mall at 5:00 AM on the Day After Thanksgiving. Let me tell you what it was like. The best store to go to was Montgomery Ward because they gave away cool Christmas toys. One year (1993 or 1994), I happened to take a slight detour through Montgomery Ward and took a look at the mall's corridor through the Montgomery Ward mall entrance. What I saw was rather interesting. Most of the stores were closed and the mall was pretty dark and creepy.

Anyway, let's talk some more about the Montgomery Ward Christmas toys. First, let's get the Flux Capacitor fluxing because we're going back to 1939, over 37 years before Carolina Circle Mall began its existence. Robert L. May created the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Montgomery Ward. From 1939 until 2001, Montgomery Ward would use Rudolph as a way to make Christmas exciting at their stores, including Carolina Circle Mall. To the left is a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer book from the Carolina Circle Mall Montgomery Ward, circa 1989.

However folks, the Day After Thanksgiving in 1993 was perhaps the most unique ever at Carolina Circle Mall. More on that later.

The Mall Itself

Alright, on every other day besides the Day After Thanksgiving during Christmas, Carolina Circle Mall really did an awesome job. In fact, they would even modify their "Your Mall For Great Savings" slogan to say "Your Mall For The Holidays".

Christmas decorations were hung all throughout the mall corridor and Christmas music would blast through the loudspeakers the mall had.

Santa Claus was usually situated on the second floor outside Belk until about 1992 or 1993. Every Christmas from that point on, Santa Claus was situated on the second floor across from Waldenbooks, which overlooked the Carousel Court. That picture to the left is me with the mall's Santa Claus from sometime around 1994. If you look closely, you can see Waldenbooks in the background.

But perhaps the most unique feature at Carolina Circle Mall during Christmas was the Christmas Maze. The Christmas Maze was situated on the first floor mall corridor outside of Montgomery Ward. It consisted of walls made of colorful glitter and was simply cool. I must have went through that maze dozens of times... each trip to Carolina Circle Mall.

Santa Claus would also give out cheap little gifts to children visiting him. To the left is one such gift that I got from him when I visited Christmas of 1994. The cover of the book states that it's simply an ordinary Night Before Christmas Book. However, as you can see on the very back of it, it includes the Carolina Circle Mall Circle Crescent, address, and phone number. But don't let that area code fool you. Early in 1994, the Piedmont Triad Area changed its area code from 919 to 910. Obviously, Carolina Circle Mall didn't update their address stamp in time for Christmas 1994.

Gee... Santa Skydives?

Earlier in this section, I made mention of a very special Day After Thanksgiving.

Well at 11:30 AM on November 26, 1993, something really amazing happened. Carolina Circle Mall's Santa Claus jumped out of a helicopter and parachuted into the parking lot outside of the mall's main entrance to kickoff the Christmas Shopping Season that year. I am not making this up. He actually did it.

Unfortunately, I was out shopping in Winston-Salem when this happened. However, I do remember seeing a news report on this on WFMY News 2 that evening. Since I was only 3 years old at the time, I actually thought it was a video of Santa's sleigh flying over Carolina Circle Mall. I thought it was the most amazing thing I ever saw.

Pretty amazing, huh?

Santa "Pays Off"

On Monday evening, December 19, 1994, a man disguised as Santa Claus visited Carolina Circle Mall and handed out $20 bills to random shoppers.

Cheryl Martin, the mall manager at the time stated that Carolina Circle Mall officials had no clue who he was. One of the $20 bills had a note attached to it saying, "Warmest holiday wishes from Carolina Circle Mall", according to Cheryl. The next day, Cheryl tried to track this mystery man down, but was unsuccessful.

The man in the Santa suit arrived at the mall at about 6:00 PM that evening. For about 30 minutes, he would approach shoppers, ask if they had been good this year, and would then hand them $20 with a note attached. He then disappeared.

An off-duty Greensboro police sergeant, Joe Deich, was working as a security officer at Dillard's at the time of Santa's visit. He didn't recognize the man either when he was approached by Santa. Santa asked the officer if he had been a good police officer this year. He said, "Yes, I have, Santa Claus". He then shook his hand, said "Merry Christmas" and gave the officer a $20 bill with a note saying "Yes, North Carolina, there is a Santa Claus".

The officer watched in surprise as Santa went downstairs and handed out about $100 more before heading out the door near Circle Six Theatres.

The owner of Fifth Avenue Men's, Simon Simaan, also witnessed Santa handing $20 bills to several children.

Joe Deich, the officer who received his $20 at Dillard's, gave his $20 to the Greensboro Police Department Fund.

In my opinion, this is truly amazing. Whoever this man was, I think he should be proud of himself. I think he probably gave out at least $500 in this 30 minute period. I think this was one of the nicest events that ever took place at Carolina Circle Mall. Too bad I wasn't there that evening.