Christmas in the 1920s

Christmas as a holiday has continuously evolved over the centuries and decades, but many modern traditions have deeply seated historic roots.  Many Christmas traditions in England and America began during the reign of Queen Victoria who led the British empire from 1837-1901.  After she married Albert of Germany, many German traditions such as decorated Christmas trees became increasingly common in England and soon spread across the ocean to the United States.  Several years ago we wrote about many of the traditions that became stalwarts of Christmas during the Gilded Age (see previous Christmas essays here), but this essay looks forward to the 1920s.  The post WWI world was changing, and new technology brought a new dimension to Christmas celebrations.  But while the United States embraced the new, there was still the tendency to look backward and dream of wholesome Christmases past before the world was torn apart by war.  Christmas was a comfort and communal celebrations of the holiday served as a balm to families (Christian ones, at least) finding their place in a new decade.

Christmas Carols & A Christmas Carol

During the 1920s, more than 60% of American households purchased radios.  With the mass production of radios, radio licenses were made available to broadcasters and radio stations began to pop up all over the country.  Families gathered together around their radio to listen to news, live events, radio plays, and music.  The demand for seasonal songs grew and Christmas songs topped the charts.  Versions of traditional favorites such as Adeste Fideles and Auld Lang Syne were hits.  One repeat hit that was very popular in the 1920s (although it was written in 1897) was a catchy march entitled "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers."  Listening to Christmas music and programs on the radio together with the family at home contributed to domestic nature of Christmas in the 1920s.

When Americans were craving comfort and feeling nostalgic during the Christmas season, they turned to a yuletide vision that was embodied by Charles Dickens.  Norman Rockwell's cover for the Saturday Evening Post dated December 3, 1921 depicts a coachman that looks like he practically jumped from the pages of a Dickens novel.  Many households favored decorations themed with carriage lanterns, antique candles, and Victorian paper silhouettes celebrating the style of Victorian English Christmases past.  Even cookbooks in the 1920s included Christmas menus full of traditional English Christmas fare like roast goose, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and English plum pudding.  

In addition to Christmas carols on the radio, Christmas stories, namely those by Charles Dickens, were also depicted in film.  They included the 1923 silent film Cricket on the Hearth based on an 1845 Dickens novella, as well as the enduring classic A Christmas Carol.  The 1920s boasted multiple versions of this tale onscreen including this one from 1923.  Americans embraced new technologies but used that technology to feed nostalgia for a Victorian Christmas.

New Traditions 

In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge celebrated Christmas with the first national community tree at the White House.  Although President Benjamin Harrison was the first President to set up an indoor tree in the White House in 1889, several decades later Coolidge was the first to install an official national tree on the grounds.  It was a balsam fir from Coolidge's home state of Vermont; stood 48 feet tall, and was the first White House tree to be decorated with electric lights.  One of the individuals working to plan this event was aligned with the electric industry and hoped that more folks would copy the White House tree and use electric lights on their home trees (thereby driving up electricity usage and decreasing the risk of accidental fires from lit candles).  Many families could not afford electricity or homes with access to electricity, but the numbers of households with electricity continued to grow throughout the decade.  The electric lights on the national tree were a novelty to many, and a crowd gathered in attendance with a desire to celebrate.  The federal government created this public and communal celebration. This tradition of a national tree and a public tree lighting at the White House continues today.

Image: Library of Congress

President Calvin Coolidge participates in the first annual National Christmas Tree lighting on December 24, 1923.
Photo: Library of Congress

Gift Giving

We may groan about the commercialism of Christmas today, but this element has been part of the holiday since Christmas gift giving became standard during the Victorian era.  Newspapers were filled with ads for Christmas gifts and store windows were dressed to entice shoppers to spend their hard-earned money.  The newspapers on Christmas Eve appealed to last minute shoppers who had mere hours to buy gifts for the family.  

Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, December 24, 1925, p.3
Wallace's was a department store on Main Street in Poughkeepsie that was open from 1906-1975.

Given the new technology of the decade, many Christmas gifts or Christmas advertisements reflected these new realities.  With the increasing number of homes with electricity, there was an commensurately increasing demand for household aids like vacuum cleaners, electric irons, or toasters.  Electric toys such as trains were popular with children.  Even though it has been a century, some ads from the 1920s showcase gifts that we still see today! 

Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, December 24, 1923, p.3

The Mills Family

Christmas was also a family affair for the Mills family during the 1920s.  Ruth Mills died just two months before Christmas in 1920, and during the remainder of the decade until his death in 1929, Ogden usually spent Christmas with his daughter, the Countess of Granard (the former Beatrice Mills) and her family.  Lady Granard and her children frequently spent the fall months with Ogden both at Staatsburgh and New York City and during the early part of the 1920s the sailed back to Europe after Christmas. 

In another throwback to Pre-WWI traditions, Beatrice Mills Forbes, the Countess of Granard, held a cotillion on December 21, 1922 at the New York home of her father on East 69th street.  The New York Herald on December 22, 1922 reported that "Two decades ago, the cotillion, with its dignified music, figures and favors, was allowed to pass into disuse upon the wave of the new era of dance music."  Lady Granard hosted over one hundred people to this dance, which was also the first large entertainment in the home since the death of Ruth Mills in 1920. 

New York Daily Herald, December 22, 1922

Lady Granard's throwback to the cotillion shortly before Christmas evokes a nostalgia that is similar to the nature of Christmas celebrations in the 1920s.  World War I was so devastating and catastrophic, it makes sense that in its aftermath folks both in the United State and abroad sought a return to an idealized time before the war.  From the familiar Christmas tunes, to family celebrations and gift giving around the tree, the traditions of Christmas brought a sense of normalcy and comfort to many in a world full of upheaval and uncertainty in the 1920s.  

1920s Christmas Postcard - Photo Credit

Sources:

http://www.vintagefangirl.com/1920s-christmas-tree-family-scene-printable 

https://www.vintageadbrowser.com/xmas-ads-1920s