Christmas Today Is Simply About Making Money and Mass Commercialism.

654 Words3 Pages
Christmas today is simply about making money and mass commercialism. AS 21st century citizens, we have forgotten its true message and meaning in life.” For many centuries gifts have been exchanged at Christmas and New Year, but as the years go on do we still understand the true meaning of Christmas? This essay will help discover the answer, using factors such as; Christmas in the C20th compared to Christmas now, what families did then compared to now and how shops make money and commercialize. For many years gifts have been exchanged at Christmas and New Year. By the early C20th, the availability of a huge range of gifts for both children and adults had increased dramatically. The streets of London were filled with shoppers in the days leading up to Christmas, the shops were open late and were filled with a riot of light and colour even on Christmas eve. Manufacturers and shopkeepers, large and small were keen to focus on the commercial potential of Christmas. Gamages, a mass department store in Holburn, Aberdeen, offered nearly 500 pages of gifts in their Christmas catalogue in 1913. Children’s gifts proved a particularly big market, and the sheer variety of games, toys and other gifts thrilled shoppers. Some gifts were considered to be suitable for both genders. These included rocking horses, wooden farmyard animals, board games, picture and adventure books, magic tricks, Noah’s arks and mechanical or stuffed animals. In 1911, Gamages filled its windows with stuffed animals, including the teddy bears which were hugely popular and became a symbol of the period. Other toys and games were targeted specifically at one gender or the other. For girls, skipping ropes and dolls were available in huge varieties. Boys would’ve expected toy soldiers and train sets. Some of these gifts were left under the Christmas tree, but small treats could be left in a stocking to be

More about Christmas Today Is Simply About Making Money and Mass Commercialism.

Open Document