The following is reprinted from an article by Larry Raymer that appeared in the May 1951 issue of Park Maintenance.
Just as parks have formal gardens, cascading fountains, and
other attractions to draw admiring crowds, the park department
in Beloit, Wisc., has developed a unique, year-around cycle of
commemorative displays…
Not only do they delight the citizens from both the city and
a large surrounding radius… but many perform a service in
promotion of community activities – getting folks “in
the mood”…
What’s more interesting and important to hobby-wise members
of the parks department and to citizens in these days of tax
pressure, these rather elaborate creations with their animated
holiday celebrities – like Santa Claus and the Hallowe’en
Goblins – haven’t cost the taxpayers a penny over a
period of 17 years…
… Mike Corcoran, assistant superintendent of the Beloit
parks department … believed it might be nice to “do
something special” for Christmas in [Horace White Park,]
the biggest and most centrally located of the parks, and that
was the beginning… His foreman, Bill Kraemer, …caught
the idea…[as well as] all park staffers, other city employes,
service and civic clubs, school kids, the Boy Scouts, farmers,
industries and business men…
… [Some of the] displays in a typical year [include]: New
Year’s Day; the late President Roosevelt’s birthday
and the associated March of Dimes; Valentine's Day Washington’s
birthday; Lincoln’s [birthday] with a rustic log cabin …the
Red Cross campaign …Easter …with two displays –
one for the kids with live bunnies … and a striking religious
scene with life-size figures …Memorial Day when row upon
row of glistening white crosses …Hallowe’en when skeletons
dance …Armistice Day; Thanksgiving Day; and Christmas, which
annually calls forth the best efforts of “Uncle” Mike,
“Uncle” Bill, and their legion of assistants…
…[The] Christmas display [is] in two sections – one
for kids, and one in keeping with the Nativity. [The] center
of the kid’s display is the mechanical Santa, who shakes
his head as he laughs, slaps his thigh, cocks his head and looks
at a little tot with a long Yule list of gifts he’d like.
It’s done with a complicated set of gears and motors, taken
from wash machines, refrigerators, windmills, and other discarded
mechanisms…
…Youngsters sawed out the reindeers with their two-foot
antlers. It wasn’t any trick to hitch them to an old-fashioned
swayback cutter. Harnesses were discarded strips of belting
and leather from a local shoe factory. The second Santa in the
sleigh is a Santa suit fashioned by the wife of a parks employee.
The figure is stuffed with hay. The “face” came from
the dime store, and the discarded boots, with a new coat of paint,
came from the fire station dormitory. Reins for the team of
deer are bright red one-inch ribbon. Santa sits there with a
laundry bag stuffed with toys and a rag mop doll tumbling out,
waiting for a happy youngster to grab her.
The kids Yule area includes a carnival for dolls. The dolls
are having a gay time on a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round; they’re
having a party in a completely furnished doll’s house, and
festivities can be seen through a one side cutaway. A towering
Christmas tree, loaded with lights, tinsel, toys and ornaments
twinkles as it rotates in glory.
Second part of the Yule display is religious. The church is
8 x 10 feet without the steeple, complete with “celloglass”
stained glass windows and a discarded school bell in the belfry.
An old automatic record player, which has been adapted to play
25 Christmas tunes, was given to the parks boys by an Automatic
Hostess firm. Music thus comes from the church as “choir
boys” stand with music in hand at the lighted open front
door… 
It’s no trick to simulate a stable, and place “Mary,”
“Joseph,” “Baby Jesus,” “the Wise Men,”
“Shepherds” and their sheep and camels. Making them
gave the boys a chance at “creative art.” Wood and
chicken wire frames covered with soaked-up newspapers molded
over general shapes turned out the animals, and mannequins became
both men and women.
Any female mannequin can become a heavily bearded shepherd or
wise man in no time at all. [They] use sewer oakum dyed various
colors for hair and beards. The high school girls again create
costumes from remnants, and they’re mighty colorful and
effective…
… The religious Yule display carries a sign “Peace
on Earth”… contributed by a shop advertising executive…