December 15 – A lot was happening in Maine in December 1924: Christmas parades, Hanukkah festivals, caroling in the streets and visits with Santa Claus.
Shops were decorated for the season and stocked with everything from silk scarves to mechanical toys and pretty ribbon candies. Schoolchildren decorated their classrooms with tinsel and ornaments and rehearsed songs to perform for their parents.
It was the midway point of the Roaring Twenties and Mainers were in the mood to celebrate.
With a world war and a deadly global flu epidemic firmly in the rearview mirror, the country’s economy was growing and people had money to spend on appliances, cars and clothes. Radios became increasingly popular, with people tuning in to listen to news and entertainment from around the world. A host of new consumer products are coming to market: Wheaties cereal, Bit-O-Honey candy bars, Dum Dums, iodized table salt, and Kleenex facial wipes.
Popular children’s toys included Raggedy Ann dolls, teddy bears, Crayola crayons, chemistry sets, Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys and yo-yos. The holiday season kicked off with the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
A look through the archives of Maine newspapers offers a tantalizing glimpse into holiday cheer 100 years ago.
PARTY TIME
The elementary schools around Portland were completely engrossed in their holiday celebrations.
An entire page of the December 21 Portland Sunday Telegram was devoted to describing the festivities. The distribution was supplemented with photos of local children under the headline “Jolly Old St. Nicholas, we’re sure you can’t resist us.”
The Morrill School held a Christmas party in every classroom “with games and stories and Christmas tales and carols and best of all ice cream for everyone.” The Year 5 pupils looked at stereopticon slides illustrating Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ and the nursery room was ‘particularly attractive’.
“The tree is ablaze with crystal and silver decorations. After greeting parents and guests, the children told the real Christmas story and sang their songs about the Little Christ Child,” the newspaper reported. “Presents that the children had made to give away, and presents that they had contributed to some needy families, were then distributed and after a meal of ice cream and animal crackers, they all went home very happy.”
At the West School, the students put on a Christmas program with poems, songs and readings. There were piano solos and an instrumental performance of “The Desert Caravan,” with students playing mandolins, violins and piano. Two sixth grade classes came together to perform a Christmas play titled “Santa and the Dragon,” featuring Santa Claus, a woodcutter, witches and fairies, puppets for different countries, and a knight named St. George.
Santa visited six schools in the city; his arrival was ‘a gala event’ wherever he went.
‘The most elaborate party given for Santa Claus was at Oakdale School, where a large number of parents entered, and where Santa’s arrival was announced by loud car horns, causing the children to run to the window. When he lay in state with his package stuffed with good things for little boys and girls, pandemonium broke out, albeit a teacher-regulated pandemonium,” the newspaper reported. “Here and at every other school Santa visited, he handed out rolls of life savers out, one for each child, and the chewing and crunching of these delicacies accompanied the farewell of the Christmas saint.”
LETTERS TO SANTA CLAUS
A young Portland girl’s attempt to deliver her letter to Santa caught the attention of the Sun-Journal. In a story published on December 18, the newspaper described how a letter from Hazel Fillmore of Hanover Street was read by Mr. Messter, the announcer for the WCBR Portland Radio Exposition.
“The informed child is no longer dependent on the slowness and uncertainty of the postal service. He establishes direct communication with Christmas Santa via radio,” the newspaper wrote.
Hazel used the letter to introduce Santa to her new baby brother, Philip Calvin Fillmore (“we love him very much”), and to detail her other siblings’ Christmas wishes. Everett, 2, and Helen, 3, both wanted rocking horses, while 5-year-old Millard and 7-year-old Warren wanted horns and drums. Iona, 8, asked Santa for a sewing box and a sleeping doll.
“As for me, I want a pair of slippers and a Bible, and if it’s not too much to ask, a sleeping doll,” she wrote. “Dear Santa, Mom is sick in bed, but I want you to answer on the radio tomorrow night. My daddy will tune in to me.”
FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
The Jewish communities in Portland and Biddeford celebrated Hanukkah beginning December 21.
In Portland, the YWHAA Intermediates and Juniors prepared an evening of musical numbers and refreshments for the first night of Hanukkah, the Portland Sunday Telegram reported.
“One of the most important parts of the evening will be the Chanukah pageant, written by Miss Alice Modes, in which about ten girls will participate and which will be very interesting. The pageant is a sketch of the history of Chanukah and the scenes will be very beautiful, the girls in their flowing white robes, each holding one of the letters that form the word Hanukkah, will follow and refreshments will be served.
The Biddeford-Saco Journal wrote about the “impressive services” Rev. Lipin gave at the synagogue on Bacon Street in Biddeford and printed a detailed history of the holiday.
“The Festival of Lights, as it is sometimes called, was celebrated Sunday at sunset with elaborate exercises in the synagogue on Bacon Street,” the story said. “One candle was lit, and today two, tomorrow three, the next day four, the next five, the next day six, the next day seven and the eighth day eight.”
GIFTS ABUNDANT
The 1920s ushered in an advertising boom and local store owners took advantage of the trend to market their holiday offerings.
In newspapers in southern Maine, stores advertised all kinds of gifts — from slippers to kitchen appliances to custom suits. Toys, of course, got top billing in many ads.
The Biddeford Bargain House on Main Street had lots of gift ideas: children’s carpet sweeper, 35 cents; small horse seesaw, 35 cents; trains 50 cents to $2.50; electric toasters for $3.95; 42-piece dinner set for $7.95; dolls 10 cents to $7.50; mechanical toys 25 cents to $2.98; solid maple desks and chairs, $4.98.
At Mrs. S. E. Ladd’s at Main and Water streets in Saco, the store offered “Interesting Christmas Gifts for Women,” most of which were silk. In stock were sweaters, silk underwear, silk boudoir caps, silk scarves, armpit bags, silk bloomers, corset covers, bathrobes, silk mules, silk stockings, silk ribbons and silk blouses.
Just two days before Christmas, advertisements in the Evening Express targeted Westbrook shoppers looking for last-minute gifts. At the Emile Begin clothing store, “Gifts for Him” included shirts, ties, bracelets, bathrobes, umbrellas, mufflers and cufflinks. On Bridge Street, Carr’s Shoe Store offered Christmas slippers for women and men for 59 cents to $3.50 in “all shapes and colors.”
LaFond & Co. invited shoppers to “come to our Toy Land on the 2nd floor” for last-minute gifts, including silk stockings, silk umbrellas, rubber aprons, muslin underwear, baby cribs and leather purses.
WHAT PEOPLE EAT
When it came time for the holiday meals, local markets were ready with everything people needed.
The Andrews & Horigan Co. supermarket. on Main Street in Biddeford had Christmas turkeys, ducks, geese and chickens, “all freshly killed and beautiful animals”, ranging from 42 to 48 cents. There were also oranges from California and Florida, large pecans, cranberries, squash and all the vegetables needed for dinner. For dessert, £2 boxes of ribbon sweets cost just 43p.
“We have everything to make your Christmas dinner complete,” read the ads for Bibeau Bros., The Pure Food Market, on the corner of Alfred and Jefferson Streets in Biddeford. Their offerings included extra deluxe turkeys straight from the farm, native geese, ducks, grapefruit, apples and nuts.
The grocers encouraged people to “shop early to avoid disappointment.”
To help readers expand their holiday menus, the Biddeford-Saco Journal published a cooking column called “The Kitchen Cabinet” with recipes for Christmas treats, including Spanish butterscotch cream and snowballs made from sponge cake.
In Portland, ads for Spear Folks Candy at 495 Congress St. — famous for Needhams and caramels — highlighted its “beautiful $1 gift packs.” There were also candy-filled cedar boxes, ribbon candies, novelties, hard candies and stocking stuffers ready to be packaged for shoppers.
“Remember, everyone loves sweets!” read the ad.
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