Recently I wrote about gifts for family members who are living with Alzheimer’s Disease or another dementia. The gifts that I highlighted were fun and helpful gifts that add to the quality of life for not only those living with dementia but also for the family caregiver.
Before I continue to look at gifts for those with dementia I thought it would be fun to take a look back at Christmas advertisements of days gone by. The ads that would have caught the eye of the senior we are now caring for. These ads go back to the days when many of those we are caring for were children and move all the way up through the generations to the present time. It is a quick and easy way to look at changes in lifestyle over the years.
I noticed that Whitman’s Candies were a popular gift from the 1920’s through the 1950’s and we still see these candy boxes on the shelves today. Whitman’s Chocolates was started in 1842 by a 19 year old and by 1915 had grown to be “America’s best-selling chocolate” and today is still offered to those traveling on Air Force One and is also offered to guests visiting the White House. http://www.russellstover.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=201
Coca Cola had a big jolly Santa in many early ads, adding happy elves in at one point in time. By 1961 Pepsi begins to show up in the hands of a happy father under a Christmas tree with his wife and son. We also see 7-Up appear in 1964. So far I have not found a decade that does not have an advertisement for a fine liquor.
Advertisements for electronics can be found in the 1920s in the form of Radio Victrola and RCA Victor in the 30’s. A “Recordio” was sold in the 1950s to record the holiday “hilarity” and also play AM and FM radio. Kodak can be given as a gift throughout the 1900s. A Motorola TV is seen in an ad in 1950. It is large and the family gathered around one per household if lucky enough to own one. Today many are asking for a phone that can not only make calls, it takes pictures, videos, will hold shows and games, and connect you to thousands of people you know and do not know through email, Facebook, messaging, Twitter and more.
As for toys, Lincoln Logs sold for $1 to $3 in the 1920s. The 60’s are when we see ads for Barbie begin to appear as a favorite. My sisters and I loved our Barbie Dolls.
Times change, we see Santa smoking a cigarette in an advertisement in 1936 and then an ad appears for Christmas Seals in 1969, an organization to fight emphysema, tuberculosis and air pollution. Today I see advertisements for electronic cigarettes. What a day it will be when no Christmas ads are needed to address smoking. (sorry, a little personal opinion there).
We often hear from seniors that oranges were always a special gift and in the 1930s the ad for Sunkist oranges states that the “The Greatest Gift of All is Health.” Even my husband Randy, born in 1958, notes that an orange was always found in his stocking when he was young. This one has survived the ages as well as Whitman’s.
Take a look for yourself; this is a fun stroll back in time through advertisements at Christmas.
http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/xmas-ads