The Surprising History of Christmas Gifts (HTW Classic)

Summary

Summary of "The Surprising History of Christmas Gifts" – HISTORY This Week

Episode Release Date: December 25, 2024
Host: Sally Helm
Guests: Jennifer Lazotte, Ellen Litwicky, Paul Ringle
Transcript Duration: Approximately 34 minutes

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1. Introduction to the Evolution of Christmas Gift-Giving

In this classic episode of HISTORY This Week, host Sally Helm delves into the intricate history of Christmas gift-giving in the United States. Through interviews with historians and archival research, the episode uncovers how the tradition of exchanging gifts during Christmas transformed from modest, family-focused exchanges to the massive, consumer-driven event it is today.

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2. Early Christmas Celebrations and the Shift to Domesticity

Colonial Era and Early Traditions ([02:51] - [05:00])

Sally Helm introduces the historical context of Christmas in America, highlighting that during the colonial period, especially in New England, Christmas was not widely celebrated. The Puritans and Calvinists opposed the holiday, associating it with pagan midwinter rituals. Celebrating Christmas was, at one point, illegal—those caught partaking could be fined.

Quote:

Paul Ringle ([10:26]): "For a really long time, Americans didn't really celebrate Christmas at all."

Despite these restrictions, midwinter festivities persisted as a form of social release for the working classes, serving as a safety valve to maintain social order.

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3. The Birth of Modern Christmas and Gift-Giving

Transformation in the 19th Century ([05:10] - [16:11])

As Northern cities expanded in the 1820s, midwinter celebrations became more public and rowdy, featuring traditions like wassailing—where workers would sing and seek alms from the wealthy. The urban elite, concerned about public disorder, sought to domesticate Christmas. Influential figures like Clement Clarke Moore played pivotal roles in reshaping the holiday. Moore's 1823 poem, "’Twas the Night Before Christmas," emphasized family gatherings and the magic of gift-giving, laying the foundation for the modern Christmas tableau centered around the home.

Quote:

Clement Clarke Moore ([13:02]): "Children with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, right? That's all part of that effort to construct this new vision of Christmas that revolves around gift giving."

The Role of Children and Consumerism ([16:11] - [18:54])

The Industrial Revolution brought significant changes to childhood. With more children surviving into adulthood and fewer required to work, the concept of childhood as a distinct, playful phase gained prominence. This shift made children primary recipients of Christmas gifts, fueling the demand for toys and related products. Ellen Litwicky explains how innovations like the baby carriage (patented in 1848) and mass-produced toys emerged to cater to this new market.

Quote:

Ellen Litwicky ([17:30]): "So for example, the first patent for baby carriage is 1848. High chairs are an innovation of the 19th century."

However, not all perspectives favored commercialization. Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his 1844 essay "Gifts," criticized the commercialization of gift-giving, advocating for more personal and meaningful presents over store-bought items.

Quote:

Ralph Waldo Emerson ([15:25]): "The only gift is the gift of thyself, that gifts shouldn't be store bought."

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4. The Rise of Department Stores and Advertising

Commercial Expansion ([18:54] - [20:05])

The late 19th century saw the advent of modern advertising, branding, and the establishment of department stores like Macy's (opened in 1858). Macy's revolutionized holiday shopping with elaborate window displays designed to attract and mesmerize shoppers, solidifying New York City as the epicenter of American retail.

Quote:

Ellen Litwicky ([19:58]): "So it is the center of finance, it is the center of production, and it is the center of labor."

Labor and Consumerism ([20:05] - [23:21])

As Christmas shopping intensified, so did the exploitation of labor. Florence Kelly, a labor reformer, highlighted the harsh working conditions faced by store and factory workers during the holiday season. In 1899, Kelly founded the National Consumers League (NCL), advocating for early Christmas shopping to alleviate the last-minute rush that overburdened workers.

Quote:

Ralph Waldo Emerson ([22:34]): "One of the most egregious things was that workers in a department store had to work as much as six hours a day overtime about three weeks before Christmas. And it was unpaid."

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5. The Spugs Movement: Combating Commercial Excess

Formation and Goals ([26:32] - [32:17])

Eleanor Robson Belmont, an actress and reformer, along with other society women like Ann Morgan, spearheaded the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving (Spugs). The movement aimed to return the sentimentality and meaning to Christmas gift-giving, opposing the pressure to buy obligatory or frivolous presents.

Quote:

Ralph Waldo Emerson ([28:58]): "Stands for the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving."

Despite initial support, Spugs faced backlash as their movement was perceived by some as anti-Christmas or against the tradition of gift-giving. Store owners, however, adeptly co-opted the movement's message to promote the sale of practical and meaningful gifts, thereby intertwining reformist ideals with consumer capitalism.

Quote:

Ralph Waldo Emerson ([32:07]): "Yes, yes. I mean, the real story of Spug is how, you know, consumer capitalism can absorb any criticism."

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6. Legacy and Modern Christmas Shopping

Enduring Impact ([33:30] - [34:09])

The episode concludes by drawing connections between historical movements and contemporary Christmas shopping behaviors. The establishment of extended shopping seasons, such as moving Thanksgiving earlier in 1939 under President Franklin Roosevelt to aid economic recovery during the Great Depression, set the stage for the modern, prolonged holiday shopping period. Interviews with present-day shoppers illustrate how the tension between consumerism and heartfelt giving continues to shape Christmas celebrations.

Quote:

Julia Press ([33:30]): "I would say right after Thanksgiving."

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7. Conclusion

"The Surprising History of Christmas Gifts" offers a comprehensive exploration of how Christmas gift-giving evolved through societal changes, labor movements, and commercial interests. It underscores the ongoing struggle to balance genuine sentiment with the pressures of consumerism, a dynamic that continues to define the essence of Christmas today.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

1. Paul Ringle ([10:26]): "For a really long time, Americans didn't really celebrate Christmas at all."
2. Clement Clarke Moore ([13:02]): "Children with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, right? That's all part of that effort to construct this new vision of Christmas that revolves around gift giving."
3. Ellen Litwicky ([17:30]): "So for example, the first patent for baby carriage is 1848. High chairs are an innovation of the 19th century."
4. Ralph Waldo Emerson ([15:25]): "The only gift is the gift of thyself, that gifts shouldn't be store bought."
5. Ralph Waldo Emerson ([22:34]): "One of the most egregious things was that workers in a department store had to work as much as six hours a day overtime about three weeks before Christmas. And it was unpaid."
6. Ralph Waldo Emerson ([28:58]): "Stands for the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving."
7. Ralph Waldo Emerson ([32:07]): "Yes, yes. I mean, the real story of Spug is how, you know, consumer capitalism can absorb any criticism."
8. Julia Press ([33:30]): "I would say right after Thanksgiving."

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks to guests Jennifer Lazotte, Ellen Litwicky, and Paul Ringle for their expert insights, as well as author Stephen Nissenbaum for his work referenced in the episode.

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For more historical insights and episodes, visit historythisweekpodcast.com or email [e-mail].

Transcript

[Sally Helm]

Hello, History this week listeners. It is Sally here. We cover stories from all around the world on this show and today's episode is sponsored by the language learning program Rosetta Stone. Our producer Ben is here to tell you all about them.

[Ben]

Thank you, Sally. So we're in the holiday season and here at History this week we try to give you the gift of knowledge, ideas that can help you better understand the world. Well, another way to better understand the world, literally is to learn a new language. So think about giving someone the gift of Rosetta Stone this holiday season. Rosetta Stone immerses you so that speaking, listening and thinking in that new language all becomes natural. Their true accent feature gives you real time feedback on your pronunciations so you'll blend right in. And you can bring Rosetta Stone wherever you go on your computer or by using the mobile app. Don't put off learning that language. There's no better time than right now to get started. Today, History this week listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. Visit rosetta stone.com history that's 50% off. Unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your Life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com history today for yourself or as a gift that keeps on on giving.

[Julia Press]

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[Sally Helm]

History this week listeners, it's Sally here. We hope you're enjoying the holiday season. I want to let you know that in addition to this week's episode featuring director Robert Eggers, today We're dropping a re air of a classic history this week episode all about the story behind why we give gifts on Christmas. Enjoy. And we'll be back this Monday with another all new episode, the History Channel.

[Eleanor Robson Belmont]

Original podcast.

[Sally Helm]

History this week, Christmas Eve 1913. I'm Sally Helm. The gifts are wrapped, the stockings are hung. At least they should be. Because in this year 1913, anyone who is still standing in line at a crowded department store really has no excuse. For months now, newspapers have been broadcasting a simple do your Christmas shopping early. Way back on May 30, a notice ran in a paper in Salina, Kansas. It said, yesterday the government thermometer registered 104. And then right after that, seemingly out of nowhere, do your Christmas shopping early. As summer turned to autumn turned to winter, the slogan started to show up everywhere. On posters in Buffalo, New York, stuck to envelopes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By the first week of December, papers in Fremont, Nebraska and Columbus, Georgia and Morris Vilvermont were printing this message in boldface type, do your Christmas shopping early. All this got us wondering, how did this early Christmas thing start? We began our hunt for the answer in midtown Manhattan. Julia Press.

[Julia Press]

Hi, Sally. Hello.

[Sally Helm]

I found you. On a recent afternoon, I met up with producer Julia Press. We wanted to see what signs of the early Christmas season we might find.

[Julia Press]

Yes. Are you in the Christmas spirit on this fine November 18th?

[Sally Helm]

I mean, I can't help it. Look at these wreaths and these bows. I know.

[Julia Press]

The halls are decked.

[Sally Helm]

The halls are seriously decked already. It was a week before Black Friday, so we hadn't even hit Thanksgiving yet.

[Julia Press]

But still, I'm seeing Santa's.

[Sally Helm]

I see some bells. Yep.

[Julia Press]

Ribbon.

[Sally Helm]

Oh my gosh. Empire State Building in red and green.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Oh, my God.

[Julia Press]

The employees dress like elves.

[Sally Helm]

Do you have any sort of stories already from this Christmas shopping season? We've had a lot of people try.

[Julia Press]

To break into our workshop.

[Sally Helm]

Oh, another garland. And a third garland.

[Julia Press]

I'm surprised we haven't seen life size nutcrackers.

[Sally Helm]

There's some giant hanging baubles.

[Julia Press]

Oh, look, just speak of the devil. A life size nutcracker.

[Sally Helm]

Near a pretty loud Christmas display. We talked to some shoppers. Do you come down here most Christmases?

[Ben]

Yes.

[Sally Helm]

And it's a zoo. It's a zoo already. Natalie and Sharon are sisters. They said they started shopping for the holidays over the summer. By the time we talked to them in mid November, they were almost finished. So you guys are already done with this? Yes.

[Julia Press]

Yeah.

[Sally Helm]

What? I'm so impressed. These sisters did just what those 1913 papers advised they shopped early, which is great for them. They got gifts for people they love. It is also great for store owners. In the last two months of this year, American consumers are projected to spend up to $960 billion in retail stores alone. It'll make up as much as 35% of the store's annual sales. So you might assume the shop early movement was the invention of greedy department stores or slick advertising executives. It wasn't, at least not at first. It started with a labor reformer named Florence Kelly. She wanted people to help not stores, but store workers. Crushed by the last second rush, she told consumers, we can lessen the burden around Christmas by shopping early, just by stretching the holiday shopping season out a hundred years later. That has definitely happened, but not in the way that Florence Kelly intended. The history of holiday shopping is, in fact, littered with good intentions gone awry as we wrestle with the tension at its heart family gatherings and heartfelt giving versus rank materialism and a stressed out labor force. Tis the season today A few surprising stops in the history of Christmas shopping. How did Christmas gifts even become a thing? And what were some of the spirited attempts to make the holiday shopping season merry for all? When you feel a cold coming, shorten.

[Eleanor Robson Belmont]

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[Sally Helm]

Oh no, your cold is coming. Your cold is coming.

[Eleanor Robson Belmont]

Thanks Revere.

[Sally Helm]

I really should keep Zycam in the house. Only if you want to shorten your cold.

[Julia Press]

Take it from America's most revered messenger. Shorten your cold at the first sign with cold shortening products from Zycam, the number one cold shortening brand available in stores. Or see where to [e-mail].

[Jennifer Lazotte]

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[Sally Helm]

You by Google Gemini. With the Gemini app, you can talk live and have a real time conversation with an AI assistant. It's great for all kinds of things, like if you want to practice for an upcoming interview, ask for advice on things to do in a new city, or brainstorm creative ideas. And by the way, this script was actually read by Gemini. Download the Gemini app for iOS and Android today. Must be 18 to use Gemini Live Picture Christmas A family inside their living room. Maybe there's a coffee table with candy canes on it, or a mantelpiece set with candles. Almost certainly the family is gathered around a tree decorated with tinsel or ornaments, or twice twinkly lights. In the middle of it all, there are probably some children ripping the wrapping paper off their gifts. This scene is newer than you might think. It had to be invented piece by piece, paul Ringle, a history professor at High Point University, told us. In the United States, Christmas hasn't always been that big of a deal.

[Paul Ringle]

For a really long time, Americans didn't really celebrate Christmas at all. In New England in particular, you know, nobody really knows when Jesus was actually born, and we all know that Christmas is built off kind of pagan rituals of midwinter and purans. The Calvinists didn't think that was something.

[Sally Helm]

That they should be celebrating in Massachusetts for about two decades. During the colonial years, celebrating Christmas was actually against the law. If you were caught skipping work or feasting or parading around in public, you'd get fined five shillings. But as Wrinkle is saying, some people were celebrating anyways. There's a long history of midwinter revelry, and in the US Even during that colonial era, people would get time off at the end of the year so they could blow off a little steam.

[Paul Ringle]

There was this idea that this was a kind of a social safety valve, that if you let the working classes get drunk and eat a lot and party and dance and have fun for a week, it would blow off some of that resentment and keep the social order safe.

[Sally Helm]

Beginning in the 1820s or so, Northern cities began to grow and workers would celebrate midwinter in the crowded streets. One of the traditions was called wassailing. Here we come a wassailing among the leaves so green oh, here we come a wandering so fair to be seen Wassailing involved knocking on the Doors of the wealthy elites. In New York, the elites were known as knickerbockers. Wassailers would ask for money or liquor in exchange for a song. It could all get a little rowdy, and the knickerbockers didn't love that.

[Paul Ringle]

The middle and wealthy classes start getting really nervous about all these drunk workers parading around the city and what's going to happen? And are we going to have riots?

[Sally Helm]

And so mid 19th century elites start pushing to change the way people celebrate Christmas. Move it inside the home.

[Paul Ringle]

They pick up the Dutch tradition of making it this kind of domestic family celebration and say, hey, don't go out and get drunk in the streets that last week. Go have a wonderful time with your family and have a tree and, you know, bring in some of the light that is gone.

[Sally Helm]

That classic Christmas image is coming into focus. The tree appears inside the living room. People come in from the snowy streets to sit around it. They light candles, and soon enough, under that tree, the gifts appear. Gifts are a big part of the new vision of Christmas. The elites are like, instead of banging on our doors asking for money, what if we keep gift exchanges in the family? Knickerbockers like Clement Clarke Moore start pushing this message. His famous poem, known as Twas the Night before Christmas is published in 1823.

[Paul Ringle]

Children with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, right? That's all part of that effort to construct this new vision of Christmas that revolves around gift giving.

[Sally Helm]

The final key part of that vision is the children themselves. Believe it or not, at this moment in history, giving kids gifts is a relatively new idea in the U.S. in fact, kids as we know them today are kind of a new idea. Until the industrial revolution, most kids had to work helping out with the family farm or the family business. They didn't have a ton of time to play with toys and nourish their imaginations. But as cities begin to grow, all of this changes, Especially in the middle and upper classes. Kids have a higher chance of surviving till adulthood, not as many of them have to work. And with these changes, they start becoming.

[Paul Ringle]

More like the children that we think of today.

[Sally Helm]

So with this new sort of childhood focused on children's development and entertainment, another important piece of that Christmas image is in place. And the need for Christmas shopping, for holiday gift giving has been born. Ellen Litwicki is a retired history professor. She taught at the State University of New York at Fredonia, and she's an expert on the history of gifts. She told us, as Christmas presents proliferate you also get a new what makes for a good Christmas gift? In 1844, the famous essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson weighs in. He publishes an essay called Gifts.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

One of the things he says is that he sees rings and jewels and any baubles that you can buy as poor excuses for a gift and that the only gift is the gift of thyself, that gifts shouldn't be store bought. So he did not believe that anything commercial really was a good gift.

[Sally Helm]

It is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something which does not represent your life and talent but a goldsmith's Emerson writes, instead, bring something that you made. Or as he puts it, thou must bleed for me.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

So what he would do, he would give like poems to people for gifts to his family members. He would write poems for them.

[Sally Helm]

He thinks that's a great gift. He says it himself in his essay it's best that the poet brings his poem, the shepherd, his lamb, the farmer corn, the miner, a gem, the sailor, coral and shells. But not everyone agrees.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Funny aside, his daughter left a lot of letters and she has some funny stories about him being totally clueless about gift giving occasions.

[Sally Helm]

Apparently once Emerson's kids bought a gift for him to present to his wife, since he wouldn't buy one himself, and.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

He says, oh, this is great. They're like, dad, this is what you're giving mother. So he strikes me as sort of clueless that he sort of lived on that philosophical level sort of not solidly on the earth.

[Sally Helm]

On the earth. Consumerism is taking off, especially in the years after the Civil War. The marketing of consumer products is in full swing and it crashes into these new ideas that have formed about childhood. I spoke about this with Jennifer Lizott, who teaches history at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She says, around the middle of the 1800s, people start to realize we can make money selling stuff for kids.

[Ellen Litwicky]

So for example, the first patent for baby carriage is 1848. High chairs are innovation of the 19th century. Before the mid 19th century, you just plop the baby on someone's lap or put them on a stack of books on the chair. Toys designated as for children were not really a thing until pretty late.

[Sally Helm]

Wait, whoa. What were they designated as? Before there was toys for adults, there.

[Ellen Litwicky]

Were toys and games, but they were considered to be family things.

[Sally Helm]

But people start to make stuff that's specifically for children to play with. Mass produced Alphabet blocks, toy trains, these lamp looking contraptions called zoetropes that you'd stick, stick a strip of paper inside and Spin to make the pictures move.

[Ellen Litwicky]

There's some really crazy innovations. Like when Edison first patents the phonograph, he doesn't know what to do with it. He doesn't know what its commercial potential is, Right. So the first thing he does is he records some poems and shoves it inside a doll. And they're terrifying and children hate them. So it's this really loud, clangy voice. This was an experimental time in toy making.

[Sally Helm]

A lot of children ended up scared by some scary dolls during this time.

[Ellen Litwicky]

Yeah, the dolls were really weird at this time.

[Sally Helm]

And as all these products emerge, industries spring up to convince people to buy them. The late 1800s see the birth of modern advertising, branding and department stores. Macy's opens its doors in 1858. It sells feathers and fringes, neckties and corsets. It has a special section just for gifts. And Macy's pioneers the practice of putting up colorful, light filled window displays to try and lure customers inside for Christmas. By the 1890s, you might find an intricate replica of the Chicago World's Fair or moving panoramas depicting famous novels. Windows that a New York newspaper said will make the children's eyes stick out with wonder and delight. Soon, every major city has a department store, but the department store capital of the country is New York. And near New York's famous Macy's with its famous window displays, are the city's famous famous garment factories and the stock exchange.

[Ellen Litwicky]

So it is the center of finance, it is the center of production, and it is the center of labor.

[Sally Helm]

And that labor is at the center of the burgeoning Christmas shopping industry. Each Christmas season, families who could afford it gave their kids stockings full of sugar plums. But someone had to knit those stockings and make those sugar plums. Oftentimes, it was other kids. One activist decides to look into what it's like for kids to be doing these jobs. She goes to a caramel factory and finds over a hundred immigrant children, as she describes it, sitting at tables covered with caramels, which the children wrapped in paper, being paid for their work at the rate of a penny. A thousand. One penny per every thousand caramels hand wrapped. That woman was an activist named Florence Kelly. In 1899, Kelly starts running an organization in New York called the National Consumers League, or the ncl. They're trying to organize political action among consumers, specifically women. The NCL essentially tells them, you may not have the right to vote, but you still have power, the power to choose what to buy.

[Ellen Litwicky]

If you're not going to buy products from a company that uses child labor, then maybe companies will stop using child labor.

[Sally Helm]

That power is especially potent around Christmas, when managers push their workers to the max. So in 1903, Florence Kelly sits down to write an essay called the Travesty of Christmas. She's not against Christmas itself. She's against the rampant labor violations that come with the holiday. She takes particular aim at a labor law passed in New York City a few years before. It sounds good. Women under 21 and boys under 16 can't be made to work more than 10 hours in a day. But there is a major loophole. The rules do not apply between December 15th and 31st, Kelly writes, just at the season most trying for these employees, all restriction of hours of labor was removed. Here's Ellen Litwicky again.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

One of the most egregious things was that workers in a department store had to work as much as six hours a day overtime about three weeks before Christmas. And it was unpaid. They didn't get paid for this overtime.

[Sally Helm]

And it's not just department store workers. Kelly tells the story of a New York delivery boy who took a nap in his wagon after working from 7am to 2am delivering belated Christmas gifts. And he died of the cold. Kelly had an idea about how consumers.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Could help Shop early, shop early. You know, shop weeks before Christmas, shop early. If you're going to be shopping for Christmas, shop early.

[Sally Helm]

That way delivery boys aren't being worked around the clock, factories don't have to produce so many goods at the last minute, and department stores aren't holding their workers hostage without pay. The campaign takes off that year, a Kentucky paper reports that the local branch of the National Consumers League had heard from merchants that some customers started Christmas shopping in November, which meant the last week of the year wasn't as slammed as usual. And the reform keeps spreading over time. Notices appear in newspapers as early as May and June and July. Do your Christmas shopping early. The idea is to take what has become a mass event, the gift giving season, and make it more humane. So everything's good now, right? Not quite. Coming up, my favorite twist. And also I sing a song from the Progressive era about the right way to give gifts.

[Julia Press]

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[Sally Helm]

We have one more act for you this evening. I don't even need to say his name.

[Eleanor Robson Belmont]

Mr. Bob Dylan, a complete unknown, is now a Golden Globe in critics choice nominee for best picture.

[Julia Press]

Bobby, what do you want to be?

[Sally Helm]

Whatever it is they don't want me to be.

[Eleanor Robson Belmont]

Timothee Chalamet astonishes as Bob Dylan in one of the best performances of the year and critics rave. Edward Norton is absolutely fantastic.

[Sally Helm]

70,000 people are here and Bobby is.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

The reason for it.

[Ben]

They just want me singing blowing in the wind for the rest of my life.

[Eleanor Robson Belmont]

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[Sally Helm]

Turn it down. Hey. Loud.

[Eleanor Robson Belmont]

And named to AFI and the National Board of Reviews top 10 films of the year.

[Sally Helm]

Make some noise. BD track some mud on a carpet.

[Eleanor Robson Belmont]

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[Sally Helm]

By the end of the 19th century, Christmas is firmly established as a season of occasionally excessive gift giving. And now a group of reform minded women in New York notices it's not just long hours that are burdening workers. There's something else Ellen Litwicky told us. Their leader is Eleanor Robson Belmont.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

She was an actress and she married this guy, August Belmont. He was a financier, but I think he was also involved in starting the Belmont Stakes horse race.

[Sally Helm]

The Belmonts summer in their Newport mansion by the sea and spend winters having their coachmen take them on horse drawn sleigh rides in Central Park. Belmont spends her time with people like Ann Morgan, the daughter of the banker JP Morgan. They're in the habit of discussing what working women need to improve their plight.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Better working hours, better benefits, maybe vacation sanitary restrooms and break rooms and you know, a lunch break. Break.

[Sally Helm]

Belmont and Morgan are against more radical actions like strikes, but they support improving conditions on the job. So they and their fellow reformers create this club where they meet with working class women and try to help them save up to go on vacation. They create their own sort of bank, because other banks won't let working class women open accounts. And at one of the meetings of this vacation club, Belmont is talking with a group of department store workers.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

The workers start complaining that at Christmas time, they're pressured to give money for gifts for their supervisors, sometimes, you know, up to $25. And this is, you know, they made like maybe $7 a week. And so to Belmont, this, you know, goes against one of those central sentimental tenets of Christmas, right? You're not supposed to give your boss a gift. You're supposed to give your children gifts or members gifts.

[Sally Helm]

That was the whole idea behind the initial big change to Christmas back in the 1800s. Keep it in the home and within the family. Belmont and the other society ladies are outraged, and they band together with these department store workers to start a group called the Spugs. What is a Spug?

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Stands for the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving.

[Sally Helm]

As the New York Times writes, a spug is a woman who has vowed never again in all her life to give any Christmas gift that is not offered with a whole heart. And it's more than just a vow. It's a movement.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

The individual can't on her own say, I'm not going to give for this gift. But if everybody in the whole department said that they weren't going to do it, you have more protection in numbers.

[Sally Helm]

This is at a time when newspapers covered the activities of society women as big news. So if Eleanor Belmont and Ann Morgan have now become spugs, Stop the presses.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

There's a flurry of articles about it. Woodrow Wilson's wife and her daughter, they become sort of the leaders of SPUG In Washington, the former President Theodore Roosevelt also claimed that he joined the Spug. So it gets a lot of publicity, right?

[Sally Helm]

As the Spug movement grows, it sets its sights beyond department store workers. They decide that pretty much everyone is being asked to give useless gifts in some way or another. Gift giving, Belmont says, has drifted to the level of the common swap, utterly devoid of the faintest trace of sentiment or meaning.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Their concerns go back to that 19th century sentimental Emersonian ideal that a gift should be a portion of thyself. A gift should not be coerced or should not be routine.

[Sally Helm]

Ann Morgan laments that mandatory giving has led to the death of worthy Christmas feeling. Another Spug member writes lyrics to accompany a popular song. It goes like, remember this December that love weighs more than gold. Help us spread the news to young and old. Friendship bought in soul leaves the giver cold. Catchy and people find the ideas convincing.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

You start seeing a few articles about it that say, oh, maybe this is a good idea.

[Sally Helm]

But not everyone agrees. The anti spug backlash begins.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Then you start seeing people that start talking about them as scrooges, destroying the idea of Christmas by being against gifts. And so in response to some of this, Eleanor Belmont at one meeting said that if they were going to get complaints, we could change our name to the Society for the Promotion of Useful Giving.

[Sally Helm]

Okay, I see some. I sense some spin. It's not that we're against gifts. The Spugs say. We just want people to give gifts in a heartfelt way and make sure those gifts are useful, not just for the sake of it. Gift givers like this new message, but you know who really likes it? Store owners.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

You start seeing these advertisements, be a spud. You know, we have used gifts. You could buy furniture.

[Sally Helm]

You could buy, you know, advertisements from stores.

[Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Yes, yes. I mean, the real story of Spug is how, you know, consumer capitalism can absorb any criticism.

[Sally Helm]

One Oklahoma store urges be a spug alongside images of the practical gloves and socks you can buy. And businesses with things to sell co opt the Shop early campaign, too. An ad in a Kansas newspaper surrounds its shop early message with images of fur coats and vacuums and descriptions of tiny cashmere baby clothes. A New Mexico store selling toys for little folks and sparkling jewels asks its customers menacingly, if Christmas came tomorrow, would you be ready? There's no use fighting it anymore. One of the purposes of Christmas is to boost American commerce. The federal government knows it. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt moves Thanksgiving a week earlier to create a longer Christmas shopping season. The goal is to help businesses who have suffered in the Great Depression leave more time for spending. This is the holiday season we know today. Back on November 18th, Julie and I spoke to a woman named Andy at a New York holiday market. When does it start to get crazy?

[Julia Press]

I would say right after Thanksgiving.

[Sally Helm]

Andy sells cakes in a jar. What is it like? What's the Christmas rush like?

[Julia Press]

It's very, very crazy. You can barely walk through the market. But, yeah, it's exciting. Everyone's very in their holiday spirits.

[Sally Helm]

Is it fun? Like, does it feel festive?

[Julia Press]

It's so fun right now. I think people are just thinking about, you know, like, do I want this product for myself? I think in a couple weeks, people are looking to buy for other people.

[Sally Helm]

Oh, can you, like, feel a difference when it turns into gift giving?

[Julia Press]

People are finally, like, thinking of other people. So gift giving is a big thing. So It's a lot to manage, but really fun. And in the spirit of Christmas.

[Sally Helm]

There'S the old tension again, the standoff between consumerism and sentiment. Useless gifts, practical gifts, gifts of thyself, baubles and toys. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Thanks for listening to history this week. For more moments throughout history that are also worth watching, check your local TV listings to find out what's on the History Channel today. If you want to get in touch, please shoot us an email at our email address, historythisweekhistory.com or leave us a voicemail 212-351-0410. Thanks to our guests Jennifer Lazotte, professor of history and material culture at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington Ellen Litwicky, professor emerita at the State University of New York at Fredonia and Paul Ringle, professor of history at High Point University and author of Commercializing Childhood. Thanks also to Stephen Nissenbaum, author of the Battle for Christmas. This episode was produced by Julia Press. It was story edited by Jim O'Grady and sound designed by Brian Flood. History this week is also produced by Corinne Wallace and me, Sally Helm. Help us spread the news. I don't know how they do that middle part. That love weighs more than gold. No, that's not their tune. Sorry, Julia. It's gonna be a funny section to cut. Whew. Okay, I'm moving on. Our associate producer is Emma Fredericks. Our senior producer is Ben Dickstein. Our supervising producer is McCamey Lynn and our executive producer is Jesse Cass. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review History this week, wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll see you next week.