The 1920s, aka the Roaring Twenties, were a fascinating time in US history. People were becoming more affluent, opening doors to new opportunities and experiences. Time-saving inventions also opened up free time for fun and entertainment. Radio was a favorite new pastime. People flocked to theaters to see silent movies, and toward the end of the decade, filmmakers were starting to introduce the “talkies.”

Women worked outside the home and could finally vote. The availability of birth control devices gave women freedoms that previous generations could never have imagined. Young women bobbed their hair short, wore short skirts, smoked, drank, and generally were not as “ladylike” as their prim and proper ancestors had been. Cars had also become affordable to many people. With all this newfound freedom and extra money to spend, young people wanted to go out, have fun, and dance. Jazz bands played at dance halls and at local radio stations. The music was so popular that 100 million phonograph records sold in 1927 alone.

Things were exciting and fun in the Roaring Twenties, but where there is good, ultimately, there is also bad. Prohibition, murders, lawlessness, organized crime, nativism, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and a deep division between people took some of the shine off of this decade.^[1] Let’s take a look back at some of the people and events that contributed to the flip side of the 1920s.

10 Nathan Leopold And Richard Loeb

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were two young men from extremely wealthy, prestigious families. Leopold’s father made his fortune in the shipping industry, and Loeb’s father was vice president of Sears, Roebuck & Company. Each were considered to be intellectual prodigies, and they met when they each skipped several grades in order to attend the University of Chicago, at the ages of 14 and 15. In college, the two became inseparable, and eventually, a sexual relationship developed.

Loeb fantasized about being a master criminal and was exhilarated by committing burglaries, setting fires, stealing cars, and vandalizing storefronts. He was thrilled to have a “partner in crime” and would sometimes entice Leopold to accompany him during these crimes with the promise of sexual favors. When these lesser crimes didn’t make the headlines that they craved, the pair became obsessed with committing the perfect crime. To their way of thinking, the most shocking thing that they could do would be to kidnap and murder a child.

In May 1924, the duo rented a car, obscured the license plate, and set out to find their victim. As they were about to stop looking for the day, they spotted Loeb’s 14-year-old cousin, Bobby, walking home. After luring Bobby into their vehicle with the promise of a ride home, they began attacking him with a chisel that had been taped up in order to use it as a club. They struck him repeatedly in the head and then stuffed a rag down his throat and taped his mouth shut. They disposed of Bobby’s body in a culvert and then mailed a ransom note requesting $10,000 from his family. Unfortunately for them, the body was discovered before the ransom note could be received and paid.

Alas, the “perfect crime” was not to be. A pair of glasses were found near the body and were traced back to Leopold. The duo were questioned, and both confessed to the murder. Famous criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow represented them at trial. It was considered a small victory that they were spared a death sentence. Both received life plus 99 years in prison. Loeb was stabbed to death in the shower room while incarcerated, and Leopold was eventually paroled and moved to Puerto Rico to live out his days.

During the trial, Leopold made the following statement: “A thirst for knowledge is highly commendable, no matter what extreme pain, or injury it may inflict upon others.”^[2]

9 Nicola Sacco And Bartolomeo Vanzetti

Imagine a Massachusetts courtroom in 1921 filled with spectators. In the center of that room is a metal cage with bars. Inside that cage sit two Italian immigrant defendants who have been charged with murder. This was done to protect “respectable American Society” from these heinous murderers. Most would agree that it would be rather difficult to receive a fair and impartial trial when being displayed as caged animals.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were charged with the 1920 murders of the paymaster of a shoe factory and a guard who was accompanying him to secure the payroll. Although the evidence was extremely circumstantial, they were arrested and found guilty of both murders. Sacco was said to have pointed at the jury after the verdict was read and cried out, “You kill two innocent men. We are innocent.” He repeated this over and over again as they were led out.

Opinion was divided, but it was believed by many that they were convicted not for their actual guilt but because of their radical anarchist beliefs, a prejudiced legal system, and a trial that was dreadfully mishandled.

In 1925, another man confessed that he and his gang actually were the ones who committed the murders. The Supreme Court refused to overrule the verdict, and the two men were sentenced to death. The US and the world had been anxiously following the trial. Riots ensued in Paris and London, and bombs were set off in New York City and Philadelphia to protest the verdict and execution that took place in 1927.^[3]

8 Ruth Snyder And Henry Gray

Her eye ruled me. I tried to look away. I couldn’t. I was helpless to resist anything she bade me do. –Henry “Judd” Gray.

Ruth married Albert Snyder in 1915. Over the years, he was known to be an abusive husband and a heavy drinker. In 1925, Ruth met a traveling salesman by the name of Henry “Judd” Gray. Despite the fact that they were both married, they immersed themselves into a long-term affair.

In 1927, Ruth purchased a double indemnity life insurance policy on her husband Albert, without his knowledge. This policy would pay double if he was to die by “misadventure.” With the prospect of cashing in on this policy, Ruth and Judd began to plan the murder.

The time came to carry out the killing on March 20, 1927. They made sure that Albert was drunk and knocked him unconscious with a weight. They then proceeded to smother him with chloroform-soaked cloths and used picture wire to strangle him. After they finished him off, they staged a burglary and disposed of their bloody clothing in the basement furnace.

Ruth’s daughter later found her “unconscious” mother with her feet bound, but her hands were curiously free. The doctor found no evidence to suggest any blow to the head, and the jewelry that she reported as stolen was soon found under a mattress by the police. As their story unraveled, Ruth and Judd both ended up confessing to the crime. She tried to pin it on him, and he tried to pin it on her, but they were ultimately tried together and found guilty. They were executed just minutes apart in 1928 at Sing Sing Prison in New York. The New York Daily News published one of the most controversial photos ever of Ruth, while she was dying in the electric chair.

The case sparked a media frenzy due to the fact that one of the defendants was a woman. At that time, there had been very few cases of a female committing such a crime. She was made out to be a promiscuous, coldhearted, “non-female” monster in the news and was called a devouring “serpent” by the prosecutor. They portrayed her as a woman with a huge appetite for sex, drinking, smoking, and dancing.^[4]

7 Hall-Mills Case

It’s September 16, 1922, and a young couple are walking through a park in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They spot another couple lying on their backs under a crab apple tree as if they were enjoying the nice day. His hand rests gently under her neck, and her hand is laid lovingly on his knee. A hat covers his face, as if to block out the sun, and the woman has a scarf wrapped around her neck, perhaps to ward off the chill. At first glance, it appears that the young couple walking by this scene are just witnessing an ordinary day. On second glance, they would soon find that it was horrifyingly different than what it first appeared.

Under the hat, the man had been shot once in the head. Under the scarf, the woman’s throat had been slashed from ear to ear, and the wound was filled with maggots. She had also been shot in the head three times. Love notes were scattered on the ground between them, and a calling card with the name Reverend Edward W. Hall inscribed on it was found propped against the man’s shoe. Some reports, whether true or not, stated that the woman’s tongue had been removed.

The man would be identified as the Reverend Edward Wheeler Hall, who was the pastor of the local Episcopal church. The woman was identified as Mrs. Eleanor Mills, who sang in the church’s choir. Reverend Hall was married to Frances Stevens, who was related to the founders of Johnson & Johnson. Mrs. Mills was married to James Mills, who served as the sexton at the church. Gossip had long linked the reverend and the choir singer as a couple, even though both spouses claimed to know nothing about it, which is curious when you consider statements that were made during the following conversation:

Mrs. Hall said to Mr. Mills, “Mr. Hall did not come home last night.” “Do you think they eloped?” asked Mr. Mills, to which Mrs. Hall proclaimed, “God knows, I think they are dead and can’t come home.”

The investigation was terribly botched, and no one was officially charged until four years later, when the New York Daily Mirror published articles again about the case. The newspaper was said to have made suggestions that the reverend’s wife, brothers, and uncle were behind the crime. The authorities, stating that they had a secret witness, brought charges against them all. The witness owned a pig farm on the road where the bodies were found. Due to the nature of her business, she was dubbed “the Pig Woman” during the trial. She reportedly was dying of cancer and gave testimony from a hospital bed that had been rolled into the courtroom. She stated that she had seen all of the defendants at the scene of the crime. She wasn’t a very credible witness, and the defendants were found not guilty. The cousin, who was set to be tried separately, had his case dropped.

This case remains unsolved. A number of people thought that perhaps the Ku Klux Klan, which had been active in the area at that time, may have been responsible for what they considered the sexual immorality of the case. Others continued to believe that the wife and/or brothers were indeed the perpetrators. A dying man confessed on his deathbed that he was friends with one of Mrs. Hall’s brothers and acted as a go-between for her and two unidentified men. He claimed the wife knew of the affair and hated him for it. He reportedly received two envelopes from Mrs. Hall while she was in her car, and he gave them to two men who were waiting in the alley. He claimed that there was $6,000 in cash in each envelope.^[5]

6 Virginia Rappe And Fatty Arbuckle

What really happened in Room 1219 of the Hotel St. Francis in San Francisco? We may never know the true story of that fateful Labor Day in 1921.

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was a comedic movie superstar. He was considered second only to Charlie Chaplin and appeared in more than 150 silent films and directed at least 78. At one point, he was paid $1 million per year by Paramount. At the height of his career, he led an extravagant lifestyle with fancy cars, a mansion with staff, parties, and worldwide fame.

Descriptions of Virginia Rappe varied wildly. In some circles, she was reportedly a model, clothing designer, and film actress who loved to travel. Others said she was sleeping her way through Hollywood, had venereal diseases, and was suffering from a botched abortion.

Mr. Arbuckle, who was in need of a vacation, chose to pay a visit to San Francisco over the Labor Day weekend of 1921. He booked three connecting rooms at the Hotel St. Francis, not knowing that the weekend would turn into a nightmare that would forever change his life and leave one woman dead.

After spending Sunday dining, dancing, and visiting friends, an impromptu party materialized on Labor Day Monday. As the day went on, and more people showed up in his rooms, a phonograph was ordered from the hotel, and drinks started to flow, despite being in the midst of Prohibition. The party progressed, but then the story starts to get a bit fuzzy. At some point, Virginia Rappe is said to have ended up in Arbuckle’s room with the door locked. When that door opened, a friend of Rappe claimed that she heard her moaning and saying, “I am dying, I am dying.” Despite being examined by three doctors and three nurses and being misdiagnosed over and over again, she eventually slipped into a coma and died on September 9. The autopsy declared a ruptured bladder to be the cause of death.

Despite having no real evidence and untrustworthy witnesses changing their testimony repeatedly, Mr. Arbuckle was arrested and charged with her death. Rumor was that he raped her with a glass bottle, which ruptured her bladder. Nothing was ever proven, and some wondered if a crime had been committed at all or if it was possibly a long-term illness that Rappe finally succumbed to. Arbuckle was tried three different times on this charge. The first two ended with deadlocked juries, and the third voted to acquit him.

Even though he was acquitted, Arbuckle’s life and career were never the same. The trials cost him most of his money, and he died in 1933 from a heart attack at the age of 46.^[6]

5 The Scopes Monkey Trial

As lifestyles changed and different beliefs started to emerge in the 1920s, evangelists united to fight against what they saw as a decline in Christian morality. They targeted sexual permissiveness, racy Hollywood movies, and jazz music in their fight to preserve the authority of the Bible.

John Scopes, who was a public high school teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, started to teach evolution to his students. This was in direct violation of a law that had been recently passed in Tennessee that evolution, or any theory that contradicted the biblical creation, could not be taught in the classroom.

Scopes was defended by famous attorney Clarence Darrow, who was himself agnostic. They also had the support of the American Civil Liberties Union. William Jennings Bryan prosecuted the case. He was a Christian who had at one time been a presidential candidate. He held the belief that the Bible should be interpreted literally and that evolution was dangerous.

The trial, which became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, took place in 1925 and was attended by hundreds. Bryan described evolution as “millions of guesses strung together” and said that it made man “indistinguishable among the mammals.” Darrow chose to try and poke holes in the biblical story of Genesis, saying that they were “fool ideas that no intelligent Christian on Earth believes.” It was basically a trial of the Bible verses Darwin.

Scopes was found guilty of violating the law and was fined $100. The law that he violated would stand for another 42 years. Even though he lost the case, Darrow considered it a small victory that he was able to publicize the scientific evidence for evolution. Due to the trial’s impact, the subject did not show back up in textbooks again until the 1960s.^[7]

4 Trial Of Dr. Ossian Sweet

Imagine being a well-educated physician with a wife and small child to support. Imagine having the means to purchase a beautiful home for your family to grow and thrive in, with great hope for the future. Then imagine all those hopes and dreams grinding to a halt in the midst of racism and adversity. Dr. Ossian Sweet faced this.

Dr. Sweet knew of the troubles that other African Americans had faced when trying to buy homes in what were considered “white neighborhoods” in the 1920s. A banker and a congressman in Chicago both had their homes bombed a number of times. Other families were forced to abandon their houses by crowds terrorizing them with guns and clubs. Some even had their homes pulled down on top of them while still inside. Dr. Sweet hoped that since he was a physician, he and his family would not have to endure the same acts of violence. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Upon purchasing his home (pictured above in 2008) in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Sweet notified the local police of the date when he and his family would be moving in. That day, September 8, 1925, officers were sent to protect them but ended up being more for show than anything. Dr. Sweet also had nine friends and relatives with them that day. They were armed with guns in case any acts of violence occurred.

Upon hearing of their move, hundreds of angry rioters began to assemble at the house. On the evening of September 9, as the crowd grew more hostile, rocks were thrown, insults were screamed, and shots started to fly. Self-defense shots were fired from a second-story window of the home into the crowd. One man was injured, and another man was killed. Dr. Sweet, along with his family and friends, were arrested and tried for murder.

Clarence Darrow took on their defense. He argued in front of an all-white jury that “a man’s house is his castle and that he is duty bound to defend it.” The first trial ended in a hung jury. At the second trial, only Dr. Sweet’s brother, Henry, was charged. He was acquitted.

Shortly after the trial, Dr. Sweet’s young child and his wife both contracted tuberculosis and died from their illnesses. He resumed work within his medical practice. It is said that he lived in the home until 1944. Then, in 1960, after years of a difficult journey, Dr. Sweet committed suicide.^[8]

3 Stock Market Crash Of 1929

On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, over 16.4 million shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day, causing a downward spiral that would prove to be a catalyst in sending the United States into the Great Depression. This would forever be known as Black Tuesday. The economy would not recover until 1939.

Newspapers regularly printed stories of everyday people making millions of dollars by investing in the stock market. With their confidence high, many invested their entire life savings, and others bought stocks on credit (margins). Things were going so well that companies would put money in stocks, and banks even invested their customers’ money without telling them.

But things that go up must eventually come back down. Stocks began their decline in September, and by early October, they began their fall. People started to panic, and record trades were reported on Thursday, October 24. Banks and investment companies tried their best to stabilize the market, but it wouldn’t prove to be enough to save it. By Tuesday, October 29, stock prices would completely collapse, and investors lost billions of dollars. Trading was so intense that the ticker machines couldn’t keep up and would be 2.5 hours behind by the close of the day. The stock market would close for three days afterward. Legends state that many people committed suicide that day, though actual records do not show that.

Within the first few years of the Great Depression, almost half of US banks would fail, and unemployment would reach about 30 percent.^[9]

2 The Temperance Movement And Prohibition

Today, many wonder how Prohibition could have possibly ever happened. To understand the thinking behind what became the 18th Amendment, you have to understand the lifestyle of Americans during the time that led up to it becoming law.

In 1830, women had very few rights legally and were for the most part completely dependent on their husbands for support. In many cases, women blamed their husbands’ alcohol consumption for abuse and the sorry state of their lives. It was reported that people over the age of 15 regularly drank about 26 liters (7 gal) of pure alcohol a year. In comparison, this would be about three times more than what Americans consume presently. Women saw drinking as a “great evil” that was to blame for a long list of problems, and it needed to be wiped out.

Protestant churches led the way in the fight by urging people to use alcohol in moderation or to resist it completely. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was founded and became a “force to be reckoned with.” People who were leading the way in the fight for women’s right to vote supported the movement and made it stronger. When the Anti-Saloon League came into being, it gave even more strength to the movement and became the most successful single-issue lobbying organization in history. There were so many saloons at that time that there was reportedly one for every 150 to 200 citizens.

On January 17, 1920, after many years of fighting, the 18th Amendment was born, and it became illegal to manufacture, sell, or transport alcohol. Within moments of it going into effect, numerous accounts of violence and the theft of alcohol were reported. The lawmen would see that enforcing Prohibition would be extremely difficult. People didn’t appreciate the government trying to “regulate their morality,” and a new generation ignored the law altogether. Bootleggers were born, speakeasies came into existence, and gangs that trafficked alcohol became powerful.

Herbert Hoover would call Prohibition a noble experiment, and after losing the fight to enforce it, the law was repealed in the 1930s.^[10]

1 Organized Crime And The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre

You can’t mention the 1920s and not speak of Al Capone and organized crime. The Mafia rose to power during Prohibition and became extremely skilled at money laundering, smuggling, and bribing police and other public officials to get what they wanted. They were experts at bootlegging, prostitution, gambling, and running speakeasies where people could party and drink without worry.

Chicago already had a reputation for violence and lawlessness, but when Al Capone took over from his boss in 1925, it escalated. He was determined to get rid of his rivals, and he did so at every opportunity. The bloodiest came on Valentine’s Day 1929 against his longtime enemy, George “Bugs” Moran. Men dressed as policemen entered the garage on the North Side of Chicago where Bugs ran his bootlegging business. They proceeded to line up seven of his men and had them face the wall as if they were going to arrest them. 70 rounds of ammo were fired. Six were dead and one was dying when the real police arrived on the scene. Officers tried to pry what happened out of the dying man, but he wouldn’t talk and died shortly thereafter. Moran immediately blamed Capone, but it was never linked to him.^[11]

Federal authorities decided they’d had enough of Al Capone, dubbed him “Public Enemy No. 1,” and proceeded to go after him with everything they had. After serving short sentences for several lesser charges, he was finally found guilty of federal income tax evasion and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. His income had been estimated at $60 million a year, and in 1927, his net worth was estimated at $100 million. He served part of the sentence in Atlanta and the rest at the infamous Alcatraz. He was paroled in 1939 and, by all accounts, died an invalid and recluse in 1947.

One hundred years ago, Americans loved Christmas just as much as we do today, but there are many differences between the celebrations of the Roaring Twenties and the 2020s. Many holiday themes differ in both design and participation, and some have faded away, much like melting snow.

Similarities between the two decades do exist, however. One being a sense of transition, as both started amid a global pandemic. So while reflecting back upon the 1920s at this festive time of year, let us remind ourselves that countless brunos, flappers, and moonshiners merrily lifted their glasses of eggnog with no more of a clue than we have today as to what the new year might bring…

Related: 10 Facts Crushing The Notion That Christmas Cards Are Boring

10 Santa Hasn’t Aged a Day

If you take a good look at pictures of Christmas celebrations from the 1920s, you might take note of the black-and-white photography, the outdated style of clothing, and the antiquated architecture. But what you might notice with surprise is that Santa looked basically the same as he does today, with his long, white beard, jolly smile, and rounded belly, still dressed in his red cap and coat, both with white trim. Truly, the image of the “jolly old elf” has changed drastically throughout the centuries, as the St. Nicholas of medieval Europe was portrayed to be a thin man in saintly garb. However, the modern version of the portly guy has been fully formed as we know him in the U.S. since the mid-1800s.

A hundred years back, he was often referred to as Father Christmas, a separate folkloric entity from England that had culturally merged with the American concept of Santa Claus. For promotional events, Santa (aka St. Nick or Kris Kringle) sometimes arrived via airplane, as if flying in directly from the North Pole. During parades, he was frequently attended to by little, pre-politically correct Eskimos in lieu of elves. The big guy also appeared in many print ads during the ’20s—a good number of them hawking cigarettes or carbonated water, which was in high demand for mixing with Prohibition-era moonshine.

As you look through those black-and-white photos mentioned above, you’re liable to come across department store Santas (a la Macy’s) greeting kids in a makeshift “Santaland,” proving that holiday commercialism was certainly alive and well a century back. And while the actors who took such roles were often stereotyped as bums and winos trying to make an easy buck, modern-day professional Santas are raking it in. There are booking agencies that hire Santas to work malls and events during the season all across the country. The average salary is roughly 40 grand a year, with high achievers making significantly more! It’s like when ho-ho-ho meets ka-ching!^[1]

9 What About Santa’s Crew?

The very first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade (called a Christmas Parade) was held in 1924. Starting a long-lasting tradition, Santa Claus arrived last in line on a sleigh pulled by two horses representing reindeer, though it seems he left his little helpers back home at the North Pole [LINK 2]. As you look through old photos of the decade, costumed elves are hard to find despite being prevalent in literature and art. Norman Rockwell’s classic painting Santa with Elves appeared on a cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1922, wherein he depicted the little guys as being just a few inches tall. That was standard for elfin imagery of the day; it wasn’t until actual people began playing elves in Christmas movies and, later, on TV that our pop-cultural perception of them sprouted to at least the size of a child.

By 1920 the concept of a matronly Mrs. Claus had already been deeply ingrained within the ever-growing pool of Christmas lore, right alongside reindeer with names such as Dancer, Prancer, and Donner. But Rudolph the red-nosed wonder wouldn’t join the team until 1939 when he first appeared in a children’s book for a department store in Chicago. And Frosty the Snowman wouldn’t make the roster until 1950, being the subject of a silly song sung by Gene Autry.

During the ’20s, the concept of Santa Claus was often referenced with Jack Frost, an impish sprite who brought on frigid weather while nipping at people’s noses. He was the subject of many popular stories and poems, and his wintry presence translated well into Christmas themes.^[2]

8 The Season of Giving

A hundred years ago, a boy might have written a letter to Santa requesting a sled, a BB gun, a Lionel train set, or a rather novel item at the time called Tinkertoys! In her own letter, a girl might have asked for a doll, doll clothes, a dollhouse, and one of those newfangled, little red wagons to tote all that doll stuff around. Moms who were lucky enough to live in homes with electricity hoped for modern appliances such as vacuum cleaners, toasters, and washing machines. Dads could probably expect practical gifts such as socks, tools, and ties—and a hundred years later, they still can.

Fancy wrapping paper, similar to what we use today, was expensive and not for the average household, whose occupants generally wrapped presents in much-cheaper tissue paper. Unfortunately, scotch tape hadn’t yet been invented, so the paper was either bound with string or secured with gummed package seals, some of which contained holiday designs and were thus called “Christmas Seals.” Such gifts were placed around bulky Christmas trees, which were often as wide as they were tall.

Christmas gifts for children nowadays are much more gender-neutral than they were a hundred years ago, with STEM toys such as LEGO sets and wise little robots being appropriate for both girls and boys. And teens are into tech, a category that offers forth a wide range of gadgetry only gender-identifiable by perhaps the color of the phone case or the pattern on the smartwatch. Fortunately, Amazon can deliver these items right to your doorstep, but they won’t slide down your chimney with them.^[3]

7 What the Dickens!

If you looked through cookbooks from the 1920s, you would find recipes for a complete Christmas dinner, with suggestions such as roast duck with plum pudding or roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. The concept of Christmas dinner had become very Dickensian, and increasingly so throughout the decade, as did other aspects of the holiday. The ’20s kicked off on the tail end of the Spanish flu pandemic, which sprung from World War One, and people were ready for more innocent times, which included a Victorian-era type Christmas. Nostalgia for the warmth of the holiday as Dickens portrayed it pervaded both art and design, and sprigs of holly replaced pine boughs across America.

It was a false nostalgia, however. The stereotypical, Victorian-type Christmas had never existed in the United States, and it had only half-existed in England. Yet it had a nice feel to it. Top hats, antique candle holders, and geese became holiday imagery, and celebrants began caroling in groups despite the fact prior to Dickens’s novel, A Christmas Carol, it hadn’t been popular in England for years.

Where will our post-pandemic holiday trends take us a hundred years later? Already Americans seem to be putting up their Christmas decorations much earlier than usual and more abundantly, and increasingly Black Friday sales are starting the day after Halloween. Perhaps, here in the almost dystopian 2020s, exorbitance replaces the subtlety of top hats and holly…^[4]

6 Holiday Broadcasting

No matter what your favorite television program might be, odds are, most years, it’ll air a special Christmas presentation. Holiday themes seem to be good for ratings, whether it be Peter Griffith’s yuletide hijinks in the town of Quahog, a Brooklyn Nine-Nine caroling contest, or even a Goldbergs’ Hanukkah episode. With streaming services such as Hulu, Apple TV+, and YouTube, along with holiday programming on regular channels, we can watch such timeless classics as It’s a Wonderful Life, Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas each year. And it’s not hard to find nonstop holiday programming during the month of December.

But a hundred years ago, there was no television. Instead, families gathered around the radio, often in the evening, for entertainment, and lucky for them popular music had just begun to be publicly broadcast. Holiday selections such as “Adeste Fideles” (by the Associated Glee Clubs of America) and “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” (performed by three different bands early on in the decade) brought Christmas cheer right into many homes.

Holiday parties of the ’20s often gravitated around the sophistication of the radio, and delicious hors d’oeuvres would have been served, such as deviled eggs or fancy sandwiches using that exotic, new food item—Wonder Bread. Eggnog powder was available to be added to milk, and though Prohibition was active, on Christmas Eve, the powder was probably also frequently mixed with rum. And there was always room for Jell-O back in the ’20s, as it was considered to be “the bee’s knees,” most especially the “red flavor” during Christmastime.

Throughout the decade, one theme that was broadcast rather often was presentations of A Christmas Carol, with its very first radio reading having aired on December 22, 1922. This is no surprise due to all the Victorian-era holiday nostalgia of the day, which is probably why the tale was cinematically released a total of four times during the decade. That’s an awful lot of plum pudding…^[5]

5 Caroling

The radio was not the only option for music in the ’20s. Phonographs, early forms of the record player, were in many homes, but only a handful of Christmas records were available to play. Fortunately, back in the day, popular music was released both on disc and as sheet music, and in the early half of the century, pianos were often more easy to find than phonographs. Throwing a Christmas party with a piano lent a level of sophistication for the guests, who were more than happy to sing together songs like “The Twelve Days of Christmas” while sipping smuggled champagne and snacking on that new and revolutionary delicacy of desserts—the pineapple upside-down cake.

People back then enjoyed making their own music, so it was only natural that caroling would become a popular Christmas tradition during the decade. The fact that Dickens mentioned it in A Christmas Carol must have also inspired many merry groups of people to trudge through snowfall, their breaths freezing before them as they sang, even though caroling was almost a lost tradition in England when the book was written in the mid-1800s. And while most of the Christmas songs we have today hadn’t yet been written, popular carols of the day were “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells,” “The First Noel,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” and “Auld Lang Syne.” Back then, carolers went door to door, and their holiday visits were warmly welcomed, often reciprocated with warm mugs of hot cocoa or cider…

Boy, times have certainly changed. Caroling is a rarity these days, and most Americans have never participated in the activity. Besides, people no longer need to make music to listen to it, especially when it comes to Christmas music. Radio stations offer holiday content 24/7/365, and their selections are often from vastly different genres. In 2014 a search was done on Spotify-Echo Nest to see how many Christmas songs exist, with alternative parameters such as winter and inspirational themes included in the tally. And guess what—914,047 individual tracks popped up, which, after taking into account songs appearing on multiple compilation albums, boils down to 180,660 selections of unique content. That would make for some serious caroling.^[6]

4 Fruitcake Humor

Back in the ’20s, there were many delectable desserts served at Christmas, such as butterscotch cake, raisin pie, and, of course, elegant Jell-O molds. And off to one side, there was often a solid brick of fruitcake—untouched, ridiculed, and perhaps regifted.

The mass production of fruitcake in the early 1900s, using cheap ingredients and sold in mail-order tin containers, offered a dry imitation of the once rich and delicious dessert. And as for homemade fruitcake, Prohibition took away the key ingredient—whiskey! Many etymologists trace the phrase “nuttier than a fruitcake” to the 1920s, along with other derogatory meanings of the word which sprung from the idiom. Fruitcake humor, in general, seems to have gotten started during the decade, which makes you wonder why, a full hundred years later, we’re still gifting the darn things…

The thing about fruitcake is that it doesn’t really have to suck. The British seem to do it right, and it’s a staple at royal weddings. But Americans do not take the dessert seriously at all. Since 1996 the town of Manitou Springs, Colorado, has held a yearly fruitcake toss in January, an event that also collects donations for a local food pantry. And participants of National Fruitcake Day, an unofficial holiday falling on December 27, seem to poke fun at the edible doorstop more so than honor it. Some people even seem unable to say the word “fruitcake” without laughing.

The concept of fruitcake humor has been around for a hundred years at this point, and since it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, perhaps we should revisit the Brits’ version of the dessert. Between dried fruit soaked overnight in dark tea, along with the perfect combo of nuts, spices, and fine sherry, the outcome is a confection that no Coloradan, nor any other American, would ever catapult into the horizon.^[7]

3 The Ongoing Jesus vs. Santa Arm Wrestling Match

Between bouts of “Happy Holidays” vs. “Merry Christmas” on social media, at the workplace, and often while carving the ham, we think back to a much less politically correct time…perhaps a hundred years ago…and we peacefully smile.

Well, think again! In 1921 the iconic tycoon Henry Ford raised a storm by publicly decrying the secularization of the holiday, using non-religious-themed Christmas cards as an example. His declaration included anti-Semitic statements accusing Jewish department store owners of both profiteering and conspiracy! His words generated widespread political debate.

It’s been a hundred years since Henry Ford’s angry rant, but there have been many others since who’ve jumped in the ring. In the past century, we have seen public school pageants canceled, Nativity scenes picketed, and the popularization of the phrase “Keep Christ in Christmas.” We’ve seen SANTA anagrammed into SATAN and Christmas parties renamed “winter celebrations.” Of course, we’ve also all seen headlines about banning Christmas trees in public buildings, First Amendment standoffs, and the highly publicized Kentucky “Charlie Brown” bill.

After a full century of seasonal debate, these issues, much like fruitcake humor, are probably not going away anytime soon. But unlike fruitcake humor, Christmas protests from either side can get rather heated and intense, an unfortunate aspect of a holiday that suggests “peace on Earth, goodwill to men.”^[8]

2 The Christmas Tree

Christmas trees of the 1920s were rather…well—ugly by today’s standards. They were squat and bulky and sometimes wider than they were tall, which was generally the result of cutting the tops off a pine or a fir. Such trees were decorated with glass ornaments and festive, die-cut cardboard shapes, alongside small toys, snacks, and stringed boxes of animal crackers. Colorful garlands were generously draped upon the tree along with an incredibly flammable, though beautiful, type of tinsel.

Putz houses (no joke) were popular nativity scenes or Christmas villages built beneath the tree, often utilizing such items as cardboard, figurines, small toys, and glitter. Artificial trees of German origin made from goose feathers became popular in America during the ’20s, and often the boughs were tipped with red berries that doubled as candle holders. How accommodating…

Christmas these days is a lot less combustible, with much safer items such as flame-retardant tinsel being sold to the public. In 2019 more than twice the number of people who bought real trees put up artificial ones, new or previously used. Though most artificial trees are also flame-retardant, there is an increased concern for pre-lit models that run the risk of electrical fires. Back in the ‘20s. the safest thing to do before leaving the room was to blow out the Christmas tree candles, and it seems the safest thing to do today before turning in is to pull the plug.^[9]

1 Putting up the Decorations

The average household of the ’20s didn’t put up the tree until right before Christmas and often on Christmas Eve. Stringed lights were expensive in those days, and most people at the turn of the decade didn’t have electricity, so lighting candles on the boughs of the tree, as previously mentioned, was their only option for holiday lights. People were well aware of the risk of fire, so they lit such candles right at Christmas or the night before, and only for a short period, with the tree usually in front of a window for neighbors to see and with a bucket of water nearby in case it burst into flames.

Stockings were actual socks filled with fruit, nuts, candy, and toys that kids would find the morning of Christmas hanging from a doorknob or bedpost. The habit of hanging stockings on the fireplace didn’t happen in the ’20s as, being winter, most fireplaces would have had a roaring fire going to heat the home.

The lack of households with electricity and the high cost of Christmas lights kept outdoor decorations humbly unlit. People often decorated their front entrances with green boughs of this and sprigs of that, and a large wreath with a big red bow might have been placed upon the door about the same time the tree went up inside. Outdoor displays were subtle and dignified, often with a Victorian-era slant and always respectful toward neighbors and visitors alike.

At least that’s how the decade started…

Inspired by a tragic fire in New York City caused by tree candles, the NOMA (National Outfit Manufacturer’s Association) Electric Corporation was formed in the mid-1920s from a trade union specializing in Christmas lights. They offered a safe alternative to candles and, as competition with other companies, lowered the prices. With more and more households acquiring electricity, soon their lights were strung up both indoors and out across America to colorfully brighten the season.

Today we seem to put up our holiday decorations earlier each year, and we spend billions in the process. Outdoor Christmas displays have become both complex and competitive, with whole neighborhoods lighting up the night. And often added to these light displays are oversized ornamentation such as waving inflatable snowmen on the lawn, Santa with sleigh and reindeer on the roof, and rows of toy soldiers perhaps lining the drive.

You can even deck your house, trees, and entire yard, if you wish, with elaborate pixel lights that flash and shimmer in time to music, and with 180,660 different Christmas songs to choose from, it’s tempting not to keep them up all year round.^[10]