The Surprising History of Christmas Gifts (HTW Classic)

HISTORY This Week

The HISTORY® Channel

History, Education, Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Christmas Eve, 1913. For months, newspapers have been trumpeting an urgent message: Do your Christmas shopping early. It would be easy to assume this was the work of greedy department stores and slick ad companies. But it wasn’t – at least not at first. It started as the rallying cry of a labor reformer who was striving to improve the lives of retail workers. Ever since, Americans have been wrestling over the values at the heart of holiday shopping. But even the most earnest efforts at reform have backfired, time and again. How did Christmas gifts become a thing in the first place? And what were some of the spirited attempts to make the holiday shopping season merry for all? Special thanks to our guests: Jennifer Le Zotte, professor of history and material culture at the University of North Carolina - Wilmington; Ellen Litwicki, professor emerita at the State University of New York at Fredonia; and Paul Ringel, professor of history at High Point University and author of Commercializing Childhood. This episode originally aired on December 19th, 2022. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, want to hear a PC Game Pass advert?
0:04.7	I'll take your silence as a yes.
0:06.6	Want you games on day one like Call of Duty Black Op 6 or Stalker 2?
0:10.5	I thought so.
0:11.7	How about unlocking all the League of Legends champions when you link your Riot Games account?
0:15.6	All for one low monthly price.
0:17.3	Well, guess what?
0:18.2	We got you.
0:19.5	Learn more at Xbox.com slash PC Game Pass. Stalker to
0:22.6	available November 20th, 2024. Game catalog varies by region and overtime. And yeah,
0:27.7	that's the end of the script. Hello everyone, Stuckooie here. And I'm Gabi. And we are the
0:34.3	hosts of History of Everything. A podcast, which you can probably guess by the name, is, well, it's about everything.
0:41.5	Do you want to know why people thought potatoes were evil and would give you syphilis?
0:45.3	Are you curious about all the stories of the terrible and stupid ways that people have kicked the bucket over the years?
0:50.7	Do you want to hear tales about all of the different badasses of history and the lives that they had brought to life?
0:57.2	Well, if so, then look no further.
0:59.1	History of Everything is just the right podcast for you.
1:01.6	It's available on Spotify, Pandora, and anywhere else that you get your podcast from.
1:06.0	Join us for some fun and just see how weird and wacky history can be.
1:10.2	Hey, History This Week listeners, it's Sally here.
1:12.9	We hope you're enjoying the holiday season.
1:15.2	I want to let you know that in addition to this week's episode featuring director Robert Eggers,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The HISTORY® Channel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The HISTORY® Channel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.