How the TTC used to say Merry Christmas to its staff

The Coupler, the TTC's venerable internal magazine, has been running more or less continuously since the creation of Toronto's transit authority in the early 1920s.

Its pages are a repository for the ongoing history of the TTC as viewed from the inside. It has published commemorative issues with each new subway line and tracked the Commission as it grew into one of the most used mass transit systems in North America.

Every year since 1924, the magazine has published a special Christmas cover, almost always in colour, for its December issue. Viewed in series, the scenes range from charming to a little frightening (check out the cover from 1971), but they're all pure vintage Toronto. 

Here are some of the best of the Coupler's Christmas editions, courtesy of the TTC archives.

The 1926 edition of the Coupler.

The 1927 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

The 1929 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

Past and present collide in an early Christmas edition of the Coupler.

A 1930s Christmas edition of the Coupler featuring the Bloor Viaduct.

The 1938 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

The 1939 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

A wartime Christmas edition of the Coupler.

The 1944 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

The 1949 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

The 1950 Christmas edition of the Coupler. 

The 1959 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

The 1961 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

Hmmm. An interesting Christmas edition of the Coupler from 1971.

The Simpson's holiday windows make an appearance in the 1975 Christmas edition of the Coupler.

A wonderfully moody Christmas edition of the Coupler from 1977.