Life, 1904-12-15 · page 29 of 44
Life — December 15, 1904 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page presents a **contest and editorial debate** about Christmas gift-giving, framed as social commentary typical of early 20th-century American magazines. **The Cartoon ("The Simple Life in Winter"):** A rural winter scene showing people enjoying outdoor activities rather than shopping, captioned with dialogue suggesting simple pleasures beat urban consumption—a dig at modern materialism. **The Debate:** The page juxtaposes two positions: - **Against gifts** (Dr. Dodd's view): Christmas presents have become commercialized, encourage selfishness, and burden those who can't afford them—turning a religious holiday into economic theater. - **For gifts** (the "Optimism" counterargument): Gifts offer practical benefits—consolidating gift-giving, revealing human nature, and allowing creative reuse of unwanted items (converting neckties into sofa pillows, etc.). The satire mocks both positions subtly, especially the "optimist's" tortured rationalizations. References to Bernard Shaw suggest intellectual debates of the era. This reflects genuine Progressive-era concern about commercialism's erosion of authentic values.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Old Tom ARE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS A Z BLESSING OR A NUISANCE? a JAOR the best answer to this question, contained §n five hundred words or less, Live. will give fifty Correspondents may treat the subject in any way they prefer. a THE SIMPLE LIFE IN WINTER. SAY, DILLY, IMAGINE RIDING IN A SUBWAY SUCH A GLORIOUS DAY AS THIS y follars. ey s As our guestion applies only to adults, it meets with the full approval of Santa Claus. ber 17. issue. HRISTMAS presents, other than for charity, should be abolished : 1. They have lost their religious sig- nificance. 2. Half of 'em are luxuries. 3. Half the givers can't afford to give ‘em. 4. They turn Christmas into a lottery pay-day. 5. They make Christmas day a day of grab. 6. They boom selfishness, extrava- gance, and gambling. 7. They are not presents, but swaps. Dr. Dodd. No. 6. The Bright Side of Christmas Gifts. QFrissm may be defined as the habit of occupying your mind with the advantages of things. The contest closed Decem- Announcement of winner will be made tn an early Having once adopted this atti- tude, you will find in the custom of Christmas presents the following bene- fits : If you are an absent-minded man, you are glad to do it all up at once, and when the weather is cool. Lack- ing Christmas, you might have to re- member birthdays and things, scattered through the year, If you are a philosopher, a season of perfunctory giving offers an unpar- alleled opportunity for the inspection of human nature: the rich all giving snippy presents to the poor, and the poor giving fine things to the rich, for which they scrimp themselves till the. next June to pay the bills. If you are an economist, you can learn to make use of any amount of supererogatory stuff: all the neckties (home-made and otherwise) can be sent to the place where they make very tidy silk-patchwork sofa-pillows or little art-squares wherewith to adorn your smoking-room. Or, if your taste is more severe, give them to all the schoolgirls you know to wear with their shirt-waists. Handkerchiefs can be turned into a Holyoke paper-mill and come out in boxes of the finest stationery. Poor cigars can be uscd with visitors on whom good ones would be thrown away. If you can't get a hint from all this, how to be happy even at Christmas time, you are a realist—like Bernard Shaw. If these reflections do awaken a little good old-fashioned sentimental- ity in your up-to-date heart, you will think your best gift this year came from Sf AG ew 4 comicbooks.com