LIKE MANY KIDS,
The Sears catalog had a hand in shaping America’s Christmas traditions, and its influence endures in surprising ways.
Milt Skillman eagerly awaited the Sears Wish Book each year. Here, he thumbs through it at the family home in Mount Pleasant, MI, in 1961.
DOWN ON THE FARM
Sears’ early general catalogs took hold in places with few shops and stores. Filled with merchandise for farm families, the catalog quickly became a staple in American homes.
PARIS ISN’T CALLING
The company’s products weren’t fashion-forward, but their presentation was influential. Catalog designs reflected popular looks and put city style within reach.
YOUR HOLIDAY IS IN THE MAIL
Turn-of-the-century catalogs sold Christmas items such as ornaments, cards, and wax candles for trees. As its customers grew safety-minded, the catalog offered artificial trees and electric tree lights. Shoppers began to think of the catalog as a source for holiday gifts, and the first just-forChristmas catalog came out in 1933.
TOP SHELF MAGAZINE
Richard Sears was competing with the established Montgomery Ward catalog, and knew customers held on to their catalogs. He made his a little bit smaller so it would stack neatly on top of the competition.
SANTA SPEAKING
The tradition of NORAD’s Santa Tracker began with a Sears ad that published Santa’s phone number. Trouble was, one child dialed wrong and ended up on the phone with the officer on duty at the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD, predecessor to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD). The officer played along and reported the progress of Santa’s sleigh, an enduring Christmas
Eve practice.
Living in town I had a sidewalk to skate on, so when the Sears Wish Book came, I turned immediately to the roller skates. They were just what I needed: There was a key I could use to secure them and
they even had ball bearings. To my delight, there they were under the tree on Christmas Day.
Kay Schluessler Edwardsport, IN It had pages and pages of the necessities and luxuries of life. But to my foreign
service family living in Madras, India, in the 1950s, it was our connection to all things American and our window to our homeland.
Michele Ivy Davis
Escondido, CA
LICENSE TO PLACE AN ORDER
The CIA was having trouble finding a useful currency to pay its Vietnamese agents who spied on the Viet Cong. Sears’ wares became an acceptable medium of exchange, and American agents set up a pay scale using merchandise from the 1966 catalog. The spies ordered six boys’ red velvet vests with brass buttons and a large bra for storing fruit.
My oldest brother was a grade school teacher and principal, and has a good imagination. When his children were growing up, he read the Sears Wish Book like a story to his children.
Sue Halldorsson
Fort Wayne, IN Whenever Mom needed
some quiet time, she would give my brother Lon and me each a crayon and tell us to mark what we wanted Santa to bring us.
By the week before Christmas you couldn’t even read the pages with the Tonka trucks on them.
Jay Chester
Fort Myers, FL
WASTE NOT
Outdated Sears catalogs enjoyed a second life in America’s privies. The company supposedly received many complaints from its outhouse-owning customers when it began to print colored pictures on coated paper stock.
FAMOUS FACES
Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward and Gloria Swanson all modeled for Sears. Roy Rogers, Ted Williams and Gene Autry also popped up on its pages.