The day Father Christmas left Brakpan
From a giant figure drawing crowds from across the Rand to a forgotten nativity scene left to crumble, this is the story of how Brakpan’s festive spirit flickered out in the late 1950s.
In 1956, the Local Publicity Association (sponsored by the Brakpan Town Council) and the Chamber of Commerce requested permission to erect a giant Father Christmas on the steps of the town hall gardens below the clock tower.
After much debate, the idea was accepted, and a local young man named Dan de Jager was commissioned to do the work.
The figure was completed about a week before Christmas and proved an enormous success, drawing crowds from all over the Witwatersrand and Pretoria.
However, soon after New Year, the council decided that the figure would not be re-erected for the next Christmas because he was not a Christmas figure but represented a “pagan” belief.
It was decided that any further figures to be erected would have to be in accordance with Christian beliefs.
Consequently the original sponsors decided to erect a tableau consisting of a camel and three wise men.
Again De Jager was asked to do the work. This, too, proved a great success when it was unveiled for Christmas in 1958.
However, after the Christmas holidays, the tableau was left to deteriorate until it was eventually pulled down and sold.
Nothing similar was ever attempted again.
Two years later, the council decided that coloured lights would no longer be erected in the town hall gardens, and the Spirit of Christmas disappeared from Brakpan.
Source: The Brakpan Story by Selby Webster
