Santa's Rocket Ship, 1963

Ahh, to have a time machine. This is an ad from a 1963 Joplin (MO) Globe. I presume the festivities were dampened, if not cancelled, by Kennedy's assassination after the first segment of the scheduled appearance.

This "Santa's Rocket Ship" may have been one of a small fleet owned by Lloyd Laster of Tyler, TX, though the appearance in this graphic differs from photos I have seen of Laster's vehicles. Read more at Tom Joslin's A Brief History of Santa's Rocket Ship and Scott Santoro's Retro Rockets.

I had thought of the Christmas season starting before Thanksgiving as more recent than 1963, but Santa was giving rocket rides six days before turkey day that year.