Depression Era Christmas

[GoDawgs]

I came across this article this morning. It reminds one how fortunate we really are these days despite higher prices, etc.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/bright/th ... Ujrg%3D%3D

[worth1]

Tasting history with Max Miller has some wonderful videos on depression Christmas and so on.

I remember my mom's sister who lived in Idaho sending us giant boxes of apples.
Our friends in Arizona always brought a literal truck load of citrus for a couple of families.
I can't pronounce or spell their German lasted name but me Dad knew them in bend Texas during the dust bowl and great depression.
It was Snhnoutzer or something. Lol
He saw them again in Oklahoma at a friend's house in the early 70s.
They both remembered each other after all those years.
They left Texas for greener pastures to the west.
My dad stayed in Texas.

[worth1]

[Paulf]

My parents liked to talk about Christmas during the thirties. Rather than moan they laughed at how much fun they had, what a joy it was to gather with family and extended family. They both grew up in extreme north central Iowa and how much different the weather was. The snow was always five feet deep every year.

All this talk was during the years we were going through our own mini-depression. My father had been a high school teacher for a number of years and decided, with nine kids in the family, to go back to school in the early sixties to become an Optometrist. For four more years of college ahead we didn't have much in the way of gifts but we always were fed, clean and clothed (even if my clothes were not very stylish). We did things just like what my parents did for the holidays and actually had a great time.

Sometimes I think my wife and I overcompensated with our own kids (she grew up in a very poor household...but happy and not wanting for much either). We still try to play down the amount of gift giving and make up for it with fun...and food. My kids and grandkids will never go hungry in our house. There are more presents than we ever had but that is fine with us and no-one in the family stresses the gifts they get and relishes how much they can give to each other. A little sappy...maybe yes...but what fun we have.

[worth1]

My mom always told the story of how thieves robbed their smokehouse on Christmas Eve and stole all their meat including the Christmas ham

[worth1]

The little match girl.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/ ... match-girl

[worth1]

Most Christmas songs and poetry were written for the well to do
Not the poor just scarcely able to keep warm and have food in their stomachs.
Always in fear of being kicked to the street.
From an average 3% unemployment to one of 25% is something to think about.
And it lasted until the war started.
Then to make matters worse those poor unemployed men had to become cannon fodder on the battlegrounds of Europe and the south Pacific.
Lest we not forget the dust bowl riding on the winds of poverty to make matters worse.

[rxkeith]

my parents were both born in the 20s, so they both had life long memories of those hard times
from a kids perspective. christmas presents were a gift box from goodwill or old fellows charity.
there simply wasn't enough money to spend on anything that wasn't food or housing related. i hope
we never have to go through those times of desperation or privation again.


keith

[Uncle_Feist]

my parents were both born in the 20s, so they both had life long memories of those hard times
from a kids perspective. christmas presents were a gift box from goodwill or old fellows charity.
there simply wasn't enough money to spend on anything that wasn't food or housing related. i hope
we never have to go through those times of desperation or privation again.


keith

Three of my grandparents were born in the 20's, one was born in 1880 in Italy. He saw people who had rabies locked in cages on the street as he went to market as a boy.

[bower]

Food, clothing or housing related is pretty well the focus of gift giving for us. Christmas, for me, is about starting the winter with the best feast you've got, sharing the season bounty, and some traditional treats. If I have non food gifts to give, they are usually something I made myself. And my personal tradition for many years has been to do some carpentry for the house during the non busy holiday weeks, something needed.

Toys are a big item when children are in the house, you don't want to do without. But otherwise unless it's something special and really appropriate to the person, we try to stay away from the big culture of drowning in stuff for its own sake.
When we were small kids, there were always gifts from aunts and cousins and etc. which was often a 'gift of obligation' like I don't know this person well, but how about a bar of soap and a little bottle of perfume, a random game or a trinket, and obligation is fulfilled but you often end up with an odd collection of things you'll hardly use. My Nan made mitts and socks for the entire clan, which is saying something, all the kids of her own ten kids. That was good, but there were jokes toward the end, that the sizes were all wrong - she forgot who was how big by now. Gifts are strange things. And the culture of exchanging gifts which was odd then has become even stranger and more fraught, it seems to me. So I do my best to detach from that feeling of obligation, when somebody spends too much money on a gift for me, and stick to my guns, that it should be a moment of sharing the good things you have grown or made or gathered. And that is all it is, and plenty enough.

[worth1]

If we took easy credit and high interest out of the equation we would see a different picture today.

I can't count how many people I've heard say they ran up their credit card for Christmas bragging about it.
Personally I don't believe in gift giving and telling kids there is a Santa Claus.
It's personal for me because I felt bad I didn't get what the mean Rich kid got and I was nice.
Where's the logic in telling a child they aren't getting anything if they aren't nice.
Then the school bully shows up with a bunch of fancy stuff.
Even after you know there isn't a Santa Claus you still feel bad because it now places the burden on your parents.
Obviously you're not really old enough to understand financial things.
Going back to the depression there wasn't any holiday loans for the poor much less a credit card.
Plus there are a lot of people in the US and other places that won't be having a very good Christmas this year or anyother year.


Lastly loaning money at interest so someone can buy gifts for Christmas is about the most unChristian thing a person can do.