The Everything Family Christmas Book (48 page)

Your Christmas Budget in the 1920s

At less than $40.00 (even in 1920s dollars), a Persian rug would have made a good investment in both décor and value.

• Winter overcoat: $18.50

• Fountain pen: $2.50

• Silk hat: $7.50

• Victrola brand phonograph: $99.80

• RCA Radiola (“musical quality unsurpassed”): $115.00

• RCA Radiola with loudspeaker: $150.00

• Persian rug: $38.75

• One-pound box of chocolates: $6.50

• Ladies’ silk umbrella: $10.00

• Toy tool chest: $1.55

• "Juvenile model” bicycle: $48.75

• Girls’ ice skates: $5.00

• "Beautiful stately jointed doll” with wig, dress, shoes, and stockings: $1.95

In the News in the 1920s

“Peace on Earth” Near Fulfillment

—Boston Globe
headline, December 25, 1921, lead story referring to progress in a Washington peace conference of major international powers

Prohibition Makes Its Presence Felt

Shortly after the Volstead Act went into effect, federal authorities issued an announcement, apparently meant for inclusion in Christmas Eve editions of the nation’s newspapers, that the use of “fermented wines for sacramental purposes” during religious services would be forbidden. The substitution of a “specially prepared fruit juice” was said to be under consideration by major religious leaders.

At an elite Christmas party attended by Channing H. Cox, the governor of Massachusetts, prohibition agent Harold Wilson seized four bottles of White Horse Cellar whiskey. A major scandal ensued, and the bottles disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Way of Women at Christmas Puzzles a Woman

Why Not Start List Now (December 5) and Do Your Christmas Giving Sensibly, with Regard to Feelings of Others, as well as for Time, Strength, and Money? Leaving Everything until Last Minute Makes Season Harder for Clerks and Spoils Holiday!

—Headline of an article in the December 5, 1926,
Providence Journal,
urging procrastinating wives to show a little more thought during the holiday season. The article is accompanied by an illustration of an unnamed acquaintance of the author’s who “used to dread Christmas and spent the whole holiday in bed, utterly spent, and with ice-bags at her head and feet.”

A Christmas Card Suggestion of the Era

To a Stout Lady in a Short Skirt

May your silk hose be filled to overflowing

With all the gifts that Santa’s shops comprise

And may you have the joy that comes of knowing

It takes so much to fill a hose your size.

—Anonymous poem, circa 1925

Christmas Advertising in the 1920s

With the approach of the world’s greatest holiday, the question of Seasonable Clothing and Suitable Gifts for family and friends absorbs the attention of the majority of the people. How to satisfy this very laudable ambition is the question. Let us help you. Go to the JOYCE STORE nearest you … You don’t need to pay cash for your Xmas clothing! We will gladly charge your purchases and you may pay for them in easy partial payments—next year!

—Joyce Store advertisement

Christmas in the 1930s

The Thirties were a time of great hardship for many people, as the Great Depression took hold of the continent. By the end of the decade, as World War II began in Europe, social programs and work projects such as those tackled by the Civilian Conservation Corps had been launched. Even the toys reflect the times: Board games such as Monopoly, which was introduced in 1935, became popular partially because they were less expensive than many other forms of entertainment.

Two significant Christmas traditions find their roots in the 1930s. At this time, people began buying their Christmas trees from Christmas-tree farms rather than finding them in forests. This decade also saw the widespread practice of leaving out cookies for Santa Claus.

Your Christmas Budget in the 1930s

The child’s red wagon in the following list remains a staple of childhood play even today.

• "Satin or metallic” men’s pajamas: $10.95

• Pullman men’s slippers: $4.00

• Quart bottle of Monopole champagne: $5.00

• Westinghouse radio: $21.00

• Boys’ knickers: $1.49

• Child’s wagon (red): $3.49

• Doll, layette, and basket: $4.94

• Dollhouse: $5.00

• Toy airplane: 65 cents

• Toy typewriter: $1.95

In the News in the 1930s

The President Rejects the Idea of a Long Weekend

In 1931, back in the days of the six-day work week, President Hoover granted federal workers the day off for December 26, a Saturday, but denied them the day after New Year’s Day. In less than a year, weary Depression-era voters would grant Hoover some time off.

Little Orphan Annie on Christmas During the Great Depression

ANNIE (after hearing two society ladies complain elaborately about the hectic holiday shopping season):
Well, I haven’t but two or three folks to give to, and only a buck or so to spend—I guess in some ways it’s a cinch to be poor! Anyway, it’s lots simpler …

—From the December 24, 1936 syndicated comic strip by Harold Gray

A Bread-Line Christmas

In 1931, roughly 5,000 unemployed men showed up to eat a free Christmas dinner of turkey and mulligan stew at one site in Manhattan. The total number of New York City families receiving charity food baskets or free meals that year is not known, but it was clearly in the tens of thousands. An unspecified number of men took part in a Christmas dinner for “the city’s hoboes” at the Hobo College on East Fourth Street. Nationwide, six million people—perhaps 8 percent of the adult population of the country—were looking for work.

Mail Early—Postal Workers Need the Hours

A plea to “mail early” during the Xmas season, in order to aid the local unemployed, was issued last night over station WBZ by Postmaster William E. Hurley, who urged that Xmas cards and packages be sent this week.

“During the Xmas season,” said Postmaster Hurley, “the mail increases about 300 percent, and the handling of this enormous quantity of mail taxes the facilities of the Postal Service to the limit. It has been necessary to augment our regular force with a large number who are unskilled in Post Office work, but we cannot give them more than two days unless you give us your Christmas mail at once.”

—Boston Globe,
December 20, 1931

Brooklyn salesman Sam Coplon, a Spanish Civil War veteran who recuperated from his wounds at a hospital in North Creek, New York, was eager to find a way to express his gratitude. For twenty years—most notably at the height of the Great Depression—he delivered toys to the impoverished children of the Adirondacks at Christmastime. In one year alone, Coplon delivered more than 12,000 toys with the help of local clergy and charitable organizations.

Christmas Advertising in the 1930s

Christmas Greetings That Are Spoken Ring True

Spreading over far horizons, Xmas voices will soon be bringing joy into millions of hearts and homes throughout the land.

Somewhere there is someone who would like to hear you say, “Merry Christmas"; someone whose happily surprised answer “The same to you and many of them” will brighten the day for you.

Although miles apart, the telephone will quickly bridge the gap, sending and bringing back holiday greetings with all the warmth and sincerity that only voices can give.

—A New York Telephone Company ad from the early 1930s

Christmas in the 1940s

World War II defined the first half of the 1940s, associated with images of Rosie the Riveter as women went to work to replace the men who’d left for the war. Television arrived later in the decade, as did the very first computer and the traditional American diner. Forties-era toys included the Slinky, Tonka trucks, and Silly Putty.

Your Christmas Budget in the 1940s

Representative prices for items popular during the decade are difficult to establish with certainty, because many prices fluctuated wildly during the war. These appeared in newspaper and magazine ads during the ‘40s.

• Cigarette case: $9.95

• Zippered rayon ladies’ robe: $6.98

• Upright vacuum cleaner: $49.90

• Electric iron: $2.49

• Electric coffee maker: $6.98

• Roller skates: $9.95

• Magnetized soldier doll with American flag: $4.00

• Tiddlywinks game: 39 cents

In News in the 1940s
Pearl Harbor Brings a Different Kind of Christmas

While preparations are going on here, in a mild way to be sure, due to wartime conditions, our little British cousins across the seas have not been overlooked. Old Santa, that kindly bewhiskered man, will pay them a visit through the thoughtfulness of the relief agencies here…. Of the many thousands (of) toys of various types and descriptions sent across the seas by Bundles for Britain, most of them are soft dolls and animals made from scraps of materials in the sewing looms …

—New York Times,
December 21, 1941

The Power of Christmas Across the Centuries

From the centuries between [the first Christmas] and now, come stories of holy men, of bishops and peasant-saints, and of brave men who preached … Christ to the Vikings of the north or on Iona’s isle. As in popular belief, with each returning eve of the Nativity the miracles of the first Christmas happen again, so in these tales the thorn-tree blossoms anew and wonderful roses bloom in the bleak forest.