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Guess what, Mary?

What's that, Gabe?

Did you know that kids didn't get Christmas presents until the 1800s?

Before then, and we're talking specifically England here, Christmas was more of an adult holiday, where wealthy patrons gave servants gifts to celebrate the end of the harvest, which workers celebrated with raucous parties.

But by the early 19th century, as more people moved into factory jobs, the wild celebrations came to an end, and Christmas

became more of a family celebration. And of course, families often have children, so the gifts

went to them. So it was basically like all crazy office parties before this, if your office was a

farm, I guess. And then it just became a much tamer and sweeter holiday, like the one we know now.

Yeah, and you can actually see this change happening in advertisements. A historian named Joseph Vakolder discovered this while searching winter issues of a London Daily newspaper. In 1800 and 1801, there was not a single ad for children's presence, but by 1816, there were dozens.

Okay, so what kind of toys were popular back then?

Actually, a few things that sound pretty fun.

Chemistry sets, kaleidoscopes, little toy theaters, and something called a, quote,

genealogical and chronological game of England,

which, if I'm going to be honest, seems more like a homework assignment than a game, but, you know.

Feels like shoots and ladders meets cold case files. And now that I'm saying that out loud,

it sounds awesome. Right. Yeah, well, too bad you can't buy it anymore. But you can of course buy lots of other things, toys included.

And with the holiday shopping season kicking off, we're going to explore this very specific

intersection between festivity and commerce.

It's a story with deep roots going all the way back to ancient Rome, through medieval

Germany, and even up to modern-day

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