[Santa Claus standing on back of Washington, D.C., Post Office truck, decorated with branches and American flag]

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A Santa Claus in full red suit rides on the back of a Washington, D.C., Post Office truck, its sides dressed with evergreen branches and an American flag. The pairing of holiday cheer with a government delivery vehicle was a deliberate piece of civic theater: in the years before the 1930s, mail carriers and trucks were a familiar sight in the capital, and bringing Santa into the streets reminded residents that the postal service was part of the holiday season. The picture comes from the National Photo Company Collection, a body of work made by a commercial studio that photographed Washington's streets and events between about 1909 and 1932, which gives it a useful record of how the city marked Christmas in that era.

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