COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
VOL. 41, NO. 50 FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2010
Vintage Christmas Toy Catalogs - Gifts That Keep On Giving! the man’s house. Each bag landed in a o y l a n d , stocking hanging to Toyland, little dry before the fire “ girl and boy (good aim, St. land, Nick!) Each daughWhile you ter now had her dwell within it, you are dowry, and the ever happy then! nobleman, upon disChildhood’s joyland, covering his benemystic, merry Toylandfactor’s identity, Once you pass its borspread news of this ders, you can ne’er return generosity far and again.” wide. The longlived saga of the Glen MacDonough & mysterious and Victor Herbert saintly holiday giftgiver was officially Babes in Toyland, 1903 underway. “Ne’er return again?” Early helpers of Now, wait a minute, Glen St. Nicholas (i.e., MacDonough. Hold on parents), stayed with there, Victor Herbert. the stuffed-stocking Back in 1903, “Toyland” theme, although may have seemed just a bags of gold were wistful memory - but quickly replaced by today, thanks to vintage apples, oranges, toy catalogs, “Toyland” is candies, and small, a place the nostalgic homemade toys. among us can visit again Other cultures and again. “Lionel offered their own Trains”...“Lone Ranger variations. Children Holster Sets”. . . “Betsy in the Netherlands McCall,” “Mr. Potato filled their wooden Head,” “Changeable Thanks, Santa! Lucky youngsters, reveling in a Christmas shoes with hay for morning windfall. Better Homes & Gardens pictorial, Charlie,” and “Lincoln December, 1958. the horses accompaLogs”. They’re all waitnying “Sinter near ing within those catalog pages. was St. Colorful, action-packed descrip- despair. a tions beckon children of all ages, Nicholas, wealthy, good(that includes former children), to come and partake of their joyful hearted bishop, bounty. With an invitation like heard of the n o b l e m a n ’s that, who can resist? plight, and “Here Comes Santa Claus” Although residents of ancient came up with a Rome exchanged gifts in celebra- solution. On a before tion of the winter solstice, the night modern tradition of holiday gift- Christmas, he three giving has its origins in the story tossed of the Three Kings. Their presents bags of gold an of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, through inspired parents in the years that open window in followed to bestow small gifts on and Ruth’s their own children, in honor of the Billy most popular Christ Child’s birth. dolls for 1953 Holiday gift-giving got its included “Saucy major boost, however, in the Walker,” “Betsy fourth century, with the legend of McCall,” “Miss St. Nicholas. Although the stories Curity,” and the Doll” of his origin vary, here’s one “Toni (“when her favorite: hair gets An impoverished nobleman in nylon it can Asia Minor, (modern-day Turkey), straggly, be combed, unable to provide dowries for his washed, waved, three marriage-minded daughters, and styled”.) Text & Photos by Donald-Brian Johnson
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were replaced by morning with the sort of munchies human children would enjoy. St. Nicholas made his way to the Americas with the Dutch colonization, in the 1600s, of New
human-sized gent in red suit and fluffy white beard, came courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar illustrator Thomas Nast, in the 1860s. That visual, refined since then in countless Coca-Cola ads and Ideals magazine covers, is essentially “Santa” as we recognize him today. As early as the 1820s, shops began to gear their toy advertising specifically toward Santa and the Christmas season. In 1841, a life-size Santa figure in a Philadelphia store window attracted hordes of eager youngsters, who dragged along their toy-buying parents, much to the store owner’s delight. Live department store Santas soon followed, as did “Letters to Santa,” those voluminous annual wish lists which eventually All aboard! Lionel Trains, chug through the 1953 Billy turned such tiny and Ruth catalog. “More speed - more pull - more spots on the map climb!!” as “Santa Claus, Amsterdam (our present-day New Indiana,” into postal Meccas. York). Mispronunciations, and “March of the Toys” misspellings of the Dutch “Sinter In addition to dolls, rocking Klaas” by those unfamiliar with horses, and the like, the most popthe language eventually resulted in ular early commercial toys were the name we now know and love: those that “did something”. Some “Santa Claus”! were simple windups, or spring“Up On The Housetop” activated. Others were powered by Initial depictions of Santa offer elaborate clockwork mechanisms. us a thin man with a long, scraggly Regardless of cost or provenance, white beard, clad in what appears children flocked to them. to be a hooded, floor-length red Miniature steamboats that bathrobe. Even Clement Clarke skimmed over the water’s surface, Moore’s memorable 1822 poem, tail-wagging tin puppies, and “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, which metal banks with riflemen “shootcemented in the popular con- ing” pennies into a concealed slot sciousness such images as “stock- were all forerunners of the “do ings hung by the chimney with everything” toys that were to folcare”, “eight tiny reindeer” (plus low. their names), and unannounced Catalogs offering at least a entrances via chimney, referred to sampling of toys available for holSanta as a “right jolly old elf”. iday purchase date to the early Early illustrations accompanying years of the 20th century. The first Moore’s poem accented Santa’s edition of that large and wellgnomish, elf-like appearance, a remembered Christmas cornucharacterization Moore is said to copia, the “Sears Christmas Toy have based on his right jolly old Book,” made its debut in 1933, handyman, Jay Duyckinck. although other all-toy catalogs The image of a roly-poly, (Continued on page 2)
Klaas” (that’s Dutch for “St. Nicholas”). The next morning, delightful goodies had miraculously taken the place of the hay. Italian children waited until January 6, the “Feast of the Three Kings,” for the arrival of the beneficent “La Befana,” who filled their empty shoes with treats. For Puerto Rican boys and girls, the Epiphany was also the day to aim for. Tiny boxes filled with munchies for the Wise Men’s camels - leaves and Fisher-Price toys, “famous throughout the world for their amusing, unique action.” other vegetation— Gund stuffed toys, “designed to assure safe, lasting pleasure for all of America’s Toy Guidance Council, 1950. Small Fry”. Toy Guidance Council, 1950.