Sears and roebuck christmas wish book

When I think back on the most affecting literature I read in my youth, the Sears Christmas Wish Book instantly comes to mind. But in practice the Sears Christmas Wish Book was, for me, a kind of foundational text — a secular counterpoint to the Bible stories I learned around that time in Sunday School. By that time in life I was familiar enough with the Wish Book that I anticipated its arrival by mail just before Thanksgiving. Thematically, the catalog was split into two equal halves, neatly divided by an index and order forms in the middle. I was four months into kindergarten at the time, and I used my newly acquired writing skills and a school tablet to itemize, by page number, which items I wanted Santa to bring me that year.

The Sears general catalog included wax candles for Christmas trees. The Sears catalog added Christmas cards, and the first Christmas tree ornaments appeared in Sears began selling Christmas stockings and artificial Christmas trees in Electric Christmas tree lights made their debut in the catalog two years later. The Sears catalog and the name Wish Book were closely linked over the years.

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