December 18, 2023
Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega searches old newspapers to find ads for toys, to see what was popular in past Christmases. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
Christmas is one week away, and if you have children in your family, you’ve probably received their wish list. Thinking about Christmases past, I began to wonder what toys were must-haves when my parents and grandparents were children. Access to digitized newspapers, such as GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives, makes it easy to answer that question and add holiday details to our family history.
Searching for Toys
To begin looking for holiday must-haves from generations ago, first consider what family member or ancestor you want to explore. Christmas advertisements are going to be something found in 20th century newspapers. So, start with yourself or a more recent generation in your search for store advertisements.
You will want to use the Advanced Search box for this search (click on the Advanced Search link at the bottom of the Simple Search box on the GenealogyBank homepage). Your search will differ from the usual search you conduct on GenealogyBank. In this case you won’t be searching for a name; instead, you will be searching for a “thing” such as “toys,” “dolls,” or “gifts.” This keyword will be entered in the “Include these keywords” box in the GenealogyBank search engine.
The Advanced Search engine offers the option of including a date or year range. You’ll want to decide on a year that corresponds with a family member’s specific age, such as 10 years old. Once you know the year you want to search, you may want to narrow the date by a specific time frame, such as December 1-25.
You can do a general search on all the newspapers in the GenealogyBank collection, or you can specify a particular newspaper location or title – it’s up to you. If you want to see the advertisements your family would have seen, then you might want to narrow your search to the area where they lived, or a newspaper from their hometown. Remember that you can choose a specific newspaper location or title at the top toolbar under “Browse,” or you can conduct a search and then filter your results from the left-hand side of the results list.
Here’s an example I found by searching for the word “toys” for newspapers published from December 1, 1979, to December 24, 1979. This is a Radio Shack advertisement. (Remember them?) This advertisement includes radio-controlled cars and trucks, video games, and radios (I remember those stuffed animal radios). These toys definitely reflect that time period.
As I searched for 1979 advertisements, I realized that searching on “toys” may not be the best (or only) way to search. The problem with searching on the word “toys” was that I had results that were not what I wanted, such as toy giveaways and articles that just mentioned the word “toys.” I could also try words like “gifts” or “girl,” for example.
This Toyland advertisement from 1959 provides some other possible keywords you could use in searching for toys in historical newspapers. To find this advertisement I searched on the word “toys” and then I changed the date range from November 20, 1959, to December 24, 1959. If you know the name of the department store where your ancestor lived, you could add that name or the word “Christmas” as a keyword to include in your search.
Aside from learning more about the toys your family played with (or adding this information to your personal life history), consider using these images at your holiday get-together. Show family members the images of toy advertisements from their childhood and ask what toys they remember and which ones they coveted.
What Did You Wish For?
The types of toys kids play with evolve over time, but the wish to find that special toy under the Christmas tree is generational. It’s more interesting when you add details to your family history that go beyond names and dates. One way to do this is to add stories about holidays and memories of what they did and what they looked forward to. Spend some time adding some holiday detail to your family history using historical newspapers.
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Note on the header image: “Merry Old Santa Claus” by Thomas Nast, from the 1 January 1881 edition of “Harper’s Weekly.” Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
