“It
is not to be expected that the Christmas of 1914 will be characterized by
jovial abandon, the gaiety and hilarity that the glad season usually brings
with it.”
Hamilton Herald December 19, 1914.
Just six days before Christmas Day,
1914, the Hamilton newspapers were filled with many advertisements filled with
Christmas gift suggestions. The downtown department stores all had very large
ads, most with artwork featured Santa Claus and all manner of items adding to
their festive flair.
Efforts were well underway to be able
to provide some relief to those in need over the Christmas season, and there
were many Hamiltonians in need of such help as 1914 was coming to a close.
In addition to those unemployed, or
unemployable, to those with serious health issues and to those unnamed who for
any number of other reasons were facing a bleak Christmas.
Christmas 1914 also included a large
group of those in need of relief, a group totally unknown during the Christmas
season. That group included the wives and children of those city men who had
abruptly left home during the heady days of August when the war in Europe began.
Later, volunteers who may have been more deliberate in their decisions to go to
the front, also left families without the usual source of income.
In an editorial appearing on December
19, 1914, an editorial appeared in the Hamilton Herald under the headline, “A
Subdued Christmas.”
In it, the editorialist
took a look at why he felt that the holiday season, despite efforts by most to
continue the gladsome traditions of old, was a very different yuletide season
than Hamilton had ever known:
“There are too many
reasons why this should be a more sober Christmas for most of us than any
within memory.
“With our empire in
peril, with half the world at war, with each day claiming its ghastly toll of
dead and wounded by the thousand, with so many friends waiting to be
transported to the firing line, with the cloud of industrial and business
depression still lowering, it would be strange if the roseate hues of Christmas
were not shot with gray.
“And yet there are
compensations. The world travail and the local troubles, while they must subdue
the Christmas hilarity somewhat, ought to, and probably will, stimulate the
growth of that true Christmas charity without which Christmas is no more than Yuletide.
“If there is more
destitution than usual, there is all the more opportunity for the exercise of
brotherly kindness. The greater the need of those who have not, the richer the
blessing to be gained in giving by those who have.
“For the latter, this
no time for stinting. Let those who must perforce economize be more than
ordinarily prudent, but all who can afford to spend freely ought to do so now
as a matter of public duty as well as private choice. Generous, even lavish,
spending at this time is good for the whole community. It puts life into trade;
it enables tradesmen to meet their obligations; it provides employment for many
who otherwise lie in unprofitable idleness; it makes it easier to take a cheerier
view of the future.
“ A few weeks ago the
prospects for Christmas were anything but bright, but business has been picking
up lately, and it would not be surprising if in the week ‘jes’ afore Christmas’
the holiday trade were to witness the customary brisk and busy scenes in the
stores of the city.
“ The Herald today
contains in its advertising columns no end of hints to Christmas shoppers who
would do well to make use of them.”1
1 “ A Subdued
Christmas.”
Hamilton Herald December 19, 1914
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