Thanksgiving has passed and Black Friday is upon us. Over the years, popular Christmas presents have changed, as has when the shopping season begins. While we don’t think of shopping as a Thanksgiving tradition, it has been promoted for longer than you would think.

In the pages of a Columbus newspaper for December 1838, The Steamboat Iberia had arrived on Dec. 9 with a large stock of merchandise for a “fall and winter supply of seasonable goods.” A notice titled “New Goods! New Goods!!” told how the steamboat had arrived from Mobile with merchandise for nine different Columbus stores. Though not mentioned, it was just in time for Christmas.

Only one store in Columbus in the 1830s was actually advertising “Christmas gifts.” Pfister & Goodwin advertised many books, such as “The Gift of 1839,” “Peter Parley’s Christmas Tales” and a bound set of the “National Portrait Gallery.” “The Gift 1839” is a later edition of a Billups family Christmas present given in 1836 ”The Gift: A Christmas and New Year’s Present for 1836.” One of the stories in the 1836 book was “Manuscripts found in a Bottle” by Edgar A. Poe. Books were one of the most popular gift items of the 1800s, and it is common to see old books with Christmas gift inscriptions written in them.

Prior to the late 1800s, not many advertisements for Christmas gifts that used the word Christmas are found in local newspapers. There was an interesting advertisement in the December 22, 1849, Weekly Independent of Aberdeen.

SANTA CLAUS FOREVER

Christmas and New
Years Presents
JUST received a handsome assortment of Christmas and new years presents, consisting in part of annuals, Hymn Books, Toy Books, Fancy Note Paper, and Cards –to be had at the drug Store of J STREET & CO

By the 1890s holiday advertising was becoming more targeted. An 1897 advertisement by the Columbus Clothing Company carries the headline “Your Thanksgiving” and then says:

“Thanksgiving means being thankful. You cannot be thankful unless you have something to be thankful for. Many people think all they have to be thankful for is the turkey they eat for their dinner. You have reason to be thankful for the opportunity to buy first-class clothing at a price that suits your purse. Our excellent values are worthy your thankfulness.”

The ad in the Nov. 21, 1897, Columbus Dispatch included the drawing of a child turning his back on a platter of turkey to reach for a hanger of new clothes. Maybe Thanksgiving hasn’t changed as much as we thought.

When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s electric trains and bicycles were the two big Christmas items for boys. Electric trains have an interesting history and one often tied to Christmas.

It was in the 1860s that we see toy trains made of wood or metal rapidly becoming popular. Some of the toys were made with a wind-up clockwork mechanism attached to their wheels so that they could roll across the floor. Then in 1896, the Carlisle & Finch Company introduced the toy electric train. The iconic Lionel electric train was brought on the market by Joshua Lionel Cowen in 1900.

The first electric trains were expensive, which limited their popularity, but by the 1920s they were more affordable and began appearing in letters to Santa. The spreading popularity of electric trains can be found in letters to Santa published in area newspapers. The first letter to Santa asking for an electric train I have found in Mississippi was in a 1917 letter to Santa published in 1917 by the Stone County Enterprise of Wiggins. The first local letters to Santa mentioning electric trains were two letters that appeared in Starkville and Columbus in 1920.
The first local letter appeared in the Starkville News of December 17, 1920:

“Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me a little electric train and a pair of skates, lots of firecrackers and roman candles and anything else you want to. Clifford wants a football. I have been a good boy. I live in Starkville. Robert Spillwell”

The second local letter appeared in the Columbus Dispatch of December 19, 1920:

“Dear Santa Claus: Please bring me an electric train, a great many fire works and a football. I will have you a slice of cake when you come. Your little boy, V B Imes, Jr.”

In 1921, other letters to Santa asking for electric trains began appearing. By the late 1920s and before the Great Depression, electric trains had soared in popularity as Christmas gifts. Their popularity had increased so much by the late 1940s that they were said to be the most popular Christmas gift requested by boys.

An electric train brings back my memories of hand me down Christmas gifts. One of my oldest memories was of my older brother, T.C., receiving a late 1940s Marx Union Pacific Streamliner electric train one Christmas. It had been passed down from an older cousin who had received it as a Christmas present. Later my brother got a fancy Lionel train, and I received the passed down streamliner. After a couple of years, I got my own Lionel for Christmas but always treasured the old Marx streamliner, which I still have.

I am a supporter of local independent bookstores that support their community. In Columbus, there is Friendly City Books and in Starkville there is Book Mart and Café. As a matter of fact when I finish writing this column, I think I will walk over to Friendly City Books for some old fashion Christmas shopping.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].