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What the heck ARE Sugarplums, anyway? I guess I always assumed they were some early 19th-century delicacy now long behind us, but no. Oh wait – look at the TOYS! Continue reading Sugarplums Danced
Other children may have had visions of Sugarplums. I had dreams of Dobosh Tortes, and Summer Sausages the size of Yule logs. Continue reading “Gifts of Perfect Taste”
Neiman-Marcus, 1959 NM’s Christmas catalogs are celebrated for their outlandish “His and Her” offerings and their “fantasy gifts.” Their first such stunt appeared in this 1959 holiday catalog. Stanley Marcus had been overseeing company Christmas catalogs since the 1920s, but in 1950s the mystique of larger-than-life Texas was growing in the public eye. How to … Continue reading The First Christmas Fantasy
Here we leap way into the catalogues of Christmas Past, long past. 1882, to be specific.
Continue reading Stories of Christmases Long, Long Ago
J. Peterman Booty, Spoils & Plunder, 1992 It takes real chutzpah to sell something in a catalog and admit it’s a forgery, but John Peterman did it in this 1992 catalog. Then again, J. Peterman “Booty, Spoils & Plunder” was no ordinary catalog, and John Peterman is no ordinary copywriter. Not only are these Chinese … Continue reading Forgeries and Treasures
Chim Chimney Chim Chim Cheroo! In their quest for the best – or certainly the most novel – Christmas gifts, Neiman-Marcus ended the decade of the 1970s by offering up a pair of chimney sweeps. Continue reading Sweeping away the Decade
What was Christmas shopping like 120 years ago, sometime between Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, the Wish Book, and the zillion gadgets that we augment our lives with these days? Continue reading Turn of the (19th) Century Toys
Give Him a Collection of Cliches for Christmas! Continue reading Duds for Dad
Was “Information Overload” a thing in 1973? Neiman-Marcus thought so, and commissioned a retreat that you could escape into… Continue reading A Brave New World of your own… for $80,000
Christmas 1975: Montgomery Ward releases a set of action figures and a crossover plot to go with it, hoping parents would buy all eight dolls for the holidays…plus the Batcave, Batmobile, and Jokermobile. Continue reading Holy Superhero Crossover, Batman!
