Vintage Christmas Catalogs

Montgomery Ward & Company produced the first mail-order catalog offering general goods to rural consumers in 1872. Sears, Roebuck & Company latched on to the concept in 1893. Though the Sears catalog would become an iconic American document the early 20th century, the company did not put out the first Christmas-shopping catalog—department stores like Carson, Pirie, and Scott & Company beat them to it with titles like "Holiday Goods." Despite this oversight, Sears had a much bigger reach than its competitors—after all, its regular catalog was known as "The Consumers' Bible" all across rural America. So when Sears introduced its Christmas-themed catalog in 1933, it had a huge impact. The first Sears Christmas Book catalog contained 25 pages of toys for children and 62 pages of gifts for adults. Retitled "The Wish Book" in 1968, the yearly Christmas catalog eventually grew to 605 of pages, with sections appealing to each family member—225 for toys and 380 for gifts for adults. The cover of the catalog was usually a warm Christmas image depicting Santa Claus, a Christmas tree, or excited children. The 50th Sears Christmas catalog, published in 1982, featured a Victorian print by Currier and Ives. Of course, other companies attempted to emulate Sears' hefty magazine. In the mid-century, retailers like Montgomery Ward, Spiegel, Neiman Marcus, and JCPenney all released substantial Christmas catalogs. In the late 1990s, however, they started moving online. People who grew up with books have now begun to collect them, often rediscovering the gifts they asked for as kids.