The Personal Pleasures of Christmas

Bonwit Teller catalogue, 1986

Now that we’re used to a deluge of Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday emails, it can be hard to remember just how different Christmas shopping used to be. When Sears premiered their first Christmas Book catalogue in 1933, it opened up the possibility of purchasing more novel gifts than one might find at the local department store or main street. Sears had been selling select Christmas-related items in their general semi-annual catalogues since 1896 (candles, cards, lights, and ornaments were gradually added over the years), but it was with their first Christmas catalog or “Wish Book” that gifts became the centerpiece. A slim 87 pages, among the gifts featured were “the ‘Miss Pigtails’ doll, a battery-powered toy automobile, a Mickey Mouse watch, fruitcakes, Lionel electric trains, a five-pound box of chocolates, and live singing canaries.” Customers began to affectionately call the Christmas catalogue a “Wish Book,” leading Sears to rename it in 1968 (by which time it was a bricklike 608 pages).

Sears’ first Christmas Book, 1933.

The 1968 Sears Wish Book.

As other department stores came out with their own catalogues, they became an essential part of Christmas—or, more so, the idea of the holidays. As they usually arrived on doorsteps in September, often numbering more than 500 pages, these catalogues announced Christmas’ imminent arrival. Thumbing through pages, turning down corners, circling items, writing lists, sending or calling in orders, and waiting patiently were part of getting into the holiday spirit.

I scanned many pages from the 1986 Bonwit Teller Christmas catalog to share with you. As Bonwit Teller was considered a luxury department store, their catalogue reflects that—somewhat higher-end labels and furs, gourmet food baskets and Limoges porcelain boxes. At 60 pages, it is very concentrated unlike the sprawl of thousands of items found in J.C. Penney and Sears catalogues. An archive of more mass-market department store Christmas catalogues can be found here.

Levanté silk charmeuse blouse.

Photographed by Sante D’Orazio, the outdoor photos were taken at Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY. The studio photos feature many supermodels including Iman, Anna Bayle, and the very baby-faced 17-year-old Christy Turlington and 20-year-old Cindy Crawford.