EDITOR’S NOTE: Christmas is a time of commonality for many Americans as they join in celebrating the season of joy and merriment. This month, 828newsNOW will reveal the history of this sacred holiday and how the American mindset has influenced its development over the centuries.
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At the turn of the century, as the Gilded Age brought prosperity to an increasing number of Americans, Christmas became an increasingly lavished affair. With the collapse of the Stock Market in 1929. With 25 percent of the labor force job hunting, Christmastide would not be back to normal for a decade.
The economic turmoil of the period is hard to overstate. Even if your father was employed, he probably was not making very much money. In the era infamous for soup lines and bread kitchens, Christmas was the last thing families needed to worry about, but children wanted to celebrate regardless.
Parents gave their children whatever they could manage. In most families, that was not much. Gifts, while given with great joy and sincerity, were more often necessary purchases that happened to coincide with Christmas such as winter coats, dresses, socks and boots. Handmade was all the rage with few able to pay.
Other common gifts came from the local grocer like fruits and nuts, perhaps some candy or soda from the drug store too. Oranges were particularly common stocking stuffers as they were a relatively expensive fruit, enough that it would be special for a child to receive one. Bananas were nearly as popular, also carrying a hefty bill.
Christmas trees, if a family was able to procure one, were adorned with simple crafts such as stringed popcorn and paper ornaments. Tinsel was supposedly first added at this time as a cost saving measure like everything else.
Another penny-pinching measure was to cut back on expensive store-bought decorations. Arising from the cost-cutting were putz houses, which were small, mostly cardboard edifices that sat beneath the leaves of the tree. Putz houses doubled as inexpensive Christmas activities to do as a family.
Christmas plays and pageants were common as a nearly cost-free activity for children to do during the holiday season. Apart from a costume their mothers would make for them, little in the way of finances was required to put on a lovely show.
Foods on the Christmas dinner table were humbler than they are today, yet quite similar all the same. A chicken sat in the ham’s place. Potatoes, some variety of bread, soup and fried apples often accompanied the main course. Cider, wine and brandy, if they could be afforded, were served as well.
Pies were the most common dessert at the time, with many families going to great lengths to keep them affordable. Things we might consider abominations were delicacies like sour cream and raisin pie, vinegar pie, green tomato pie and water pie.
Two noteworthy traditions to the holiday season during the Great Depression were a drink and a board game. The jolly, soda-drinking depiction of Santa Claus first appeared in Coca Cola advertising in 1931. In 1935, the now iconic family game Monopoly hit store shelves. Ever since, it has been causing arguments between siblings and cousins each Christmas.
Without a monetary component to get in the way for most families, Christmas was about being grateful for what they did have, that being each other. It was a time for sharing what little each had with each other.
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