another Victorian card

1951 WESTINGHOUSE LIGHTS AD

GE wasn't the only company advertising lights, Westinghouse also offered similar items.

1950's GE CHRISTMAS LIGHT ADS

In the 1950s, Christmas lights were still called lamps and GE ones were very popular.

A NEW CAR FOR CHRISTMAS

I don't know how often people actually buy a car for Christmas, but this has been a common theme for Christmas automobile advertisements, these are a few early examples.

1928 BUICK

1935 PACKARD

1930'S INTERNATIONAL TRUCK

1947 MERCURY

Budweiser Christmas ads

1947

1949

1958

Shlitz Beer Christmas ads

1956

1960

Christmas magazine ads

Whitman Sampler's Christmas ads

When I was a child I often got the miniature Whitman Samplers in my Christmas stockings and once in awhile we got the big box too, so Whitman's to me is part of Christmas. I hope you enjoy these vintage print advertisements.

Cigarettes: a perfect Christmas present!!!

Did people really give cartons of cigarettes for Christmas? There were lots of ads making the suggestion, these are just some of the examples.

Gambles toy advertisement

I remember Gamble's, this was a chain of department stores in the Midwest. I think they went out of business in the 1970's or early 1980's, the stores were like Kmart or Wal-Mart, but smaller. Judging from the prices, I would guess this is the late 1960's or early 1970's.

Santa and Advertising

Santa Claus has a long history of advertising. Since Santa Claus isn't copyrighted he can be used in any ad and has been for a long time.

I don't know how laundry soap came to be associated with Santa Claus, but in the 19th century one company named their product after him. Santa was also used on label art for fruit crates in the early part of the 20th century.

A traditional stocking gift was an orange, so it sort of makes sense to have santa on the label. In some stories about santa he had a pipe so this ad isn't too outrageous either.

Christmas and tobacco

Tobacco has long been considered an appropriate Christmas gift. My father got cigars as gifts for many years, before he got smart and quit smoking. This is a 19th century advertisements for cigars. Cigars ads with Christmas themes were common for many years.

But, when cigarettes became popular, Christmas advertisements, many using celebrities or Santa Claus were put in many popular magazines. These are a few of the images.