Category Archives: Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Lighting the Los Angeles Christmas tree, 1940.

Merry Christmas from OneTubeRadio.com!

We look back to 1940, as America celebrated its last prewar Christmas. The December 23 issue of Life Magazine proclaimed that “forgetting war and stringing holly, U.S. spends to make Christmas jolly.” The magazine reported that despite the clouds of war, American preparations for Christmas “reflected no hint of anything but peace, prosperity and goodwill.”

1940 electrified Santa on the world’s second largest sign.

But the magazine also noticed a mood that contrasted significantly with Christmases of other years. Gone were the Yules filled with the fragrance of evergreens, candles, carols, still snows, and silent skies. Instead, it was filled with streamlined, mass-produced mechanical Santas of identical image grinning and nodding in department store windows. Decorators did tricks with electricity and plastics. Comic strip characters and bathing beauties intruded on a show previously dominated by the Magi and the Virgin Mary.

It said that the new mood wasn’t hard to explain, as the nation had lived with the threat of war for fifteen months. “Only in excitement, in spending, could America forget Coventry, Birmingham, and Alolf Hitler.” And there was a lot of money to spend. With war industries gearing up, Americans were flush with cash.

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Enrico Caruso, Cantique de Noel, 1916

This recording of O Holy Night (Cantique de Noel) from February 23, 1916, was Enrico Caruso’s only Christmas recording.

NORAD Santa Tracking Begins, 1955

As you are probably aware, each Christmas, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracks Santa Claus as he travels around the world. Obviously, there’s a practical reason for this. If his supersonic travels were mistaken for something else, then the results of the error could be quite dramatic, to say the least.

NORAD first began sharing this information with children 60 years ago, in 1955. Initially, this was the result of another mixup, albeit a less dramatic one. A Sears store in Colorado published the ad shown at the top of the page, purportedly showing Santa’s previously unlisted telephone number. Unfortunately, the ad carried the wrong number. Instead of Santa’s number, the store had listed the number of the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD’s predecessor. Initially baffled, the officer answering the phone ultimately figured out what was going on, and had his men check the radar. He then gave reports of Santa’s current location.

NORAD now uses the Internet to disseminate this information, which is available at NoradSanta.org.

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A Factory Set for Christmas 1925

Ninety years ago, Christmas 1925 was a Radio Christmas for this family, shown on the cover of that month’s issue of Radio in the Home enjoying their new set.

Radio was coming of age, and it was no longer the sole province of home do-it-yourself tinkerers. The magazine asked the question: “Will our next radio set be home-made or factory-assembled?” While it didn’t provide a definitive answer, the handwriting was on the wall, and most homes with radio would be getting a factory built set. It noted though, that “some of us prefer a home-made set, just as we prefer mother’s home-made cake; whereas the rest of us are going to the store and buy the best set which our pocketbook can afford, just as the apartment dweller buys bakery goods because the kitchenette is too small to permit manufacture of a full-size cake.”

By 1925, almost three times as much money was spent on sets as was spent on parts, what the magazine. But back in 1922, ten times as much was spent on parts as compared with manufactured sets. So in just three years, there had been a radical shift toward the factory sets.

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A Radio for your Toddler’s Car

Sixty years ago, the young gentleman shown here, apparently the son of author James S. Michael, was driving around under the Christmas tree listening to his car radio. His father had constructed a four-tube radio for the vehicle, powered by a 67.5 volt battery along with two flashlight batteries for the filaments. The author had noted that one of a child’s most prized possessions was his or her own automobile, but unlike the big one that Dad drove, the manufacturer didn’t provide a line of accessories.

The dashboard of the completed receiver is shown below. The pictures and construction article appeared in the December 1954 issue of Radio Electronics.

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Christmas Truce, 1914

On Christmas Day, 1914, the Seattle Star reported on the Christmas Truce. While a truce was more likely to take place on lines where the British were fighting the Germans, the Star’s reports came from the lines between the Germans and French. The paper reported that in some cases, German soldiers were swapping their beer ration for the quarter bottle of champagne provided to each French soldier.

As might be expected, the truce was more popular with enlisted men and perhaps junior officers. Senior officers took a much dimmer view, and their were stern warnings the next year against fraternization.

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Merry Christmas!

Santa hasn’t changed a great deal over the last hundred years. Here, he’s shown in a 1914 Ohio newspaper, answering the phone.

The accompanying advertisement reminds readers how much more convenient both Cristmas and life in general would be if they had a telephone installed in their homes.

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Merry Christmas Hans: 1939

The December 1939 issue of Boys’ Life magazine carries an interesting short story, “Merry Christmas Hans” by Philip Lightfoot Scruggs. It’s full of technical inaccuracies, the author’s unfamiliarity with Amateur Radio, and even countless FCC rule violations. But it’s an interesting look at how Amateur Radio was viewed 75 years ago, and it pretty conclusively puts to rest the assertion that the Boy Scouts are somehow designed to militarize boys.

The hero of the story is Dave Smith, W2KSM. (It looks like the call was really in use, as shown by what looks like a Sweepstakes entry in this 1938 QST. And it was held in 1954 by one Howard M. Ames Jr.)

Young W2KSM, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout, decided to get on the air on Christmas Eve to wish a Merry Christmas to his DX friends in France, England, Belgium, or Holland. Much to his surprise, he heard the voice of Hans Schuler in Germany, where Amateur Radio was not allowed. (Amateur Radio actually did exist in Germany, and even continued somewhat during the war. Germany was one of the few belligerent countries where there were still a few hams on the air, even during the war. For more information, see my earlier post.) The story contains an editor’s note pointing out that the story was written before war was declared. Dave asked Hans what would happen if he was caught, and Hans replied, “the concentration camp at least.”

Still, the two continue their conversation, as Dave tells of freedom, and Hans tells of the repression in Germany, and even explains how he can quickly dismantle the station and antenna if the Gestapo got too close. Another Scout in New York City just happens to be listening to the contact, and alerts his father, a network executive, who spontaneously decides to broadcast the contact nationwide where millions, including Dave’s parents, listen to the boys talk.

Dave tells about Boy Scouts, and Hans tells of his experience preparing for war in the Hitler Youth. Dave concludes the contact by reciting the Scout Oath and Law, “that is our Scout Oath and Law, Hans–what we try to live by,” as Hans prepares to hastily disassemble his clandestine set.

Dave walks downstairs wondering whether his family will believe it, only to hear the end of the broadcast in which he and Hans had a starring role.

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Give Junior a Slide Rule for Christmas!

Fifty years ago, I bet Santa could barely keep up with the demand from kids clamoring for one of these under the tree. The Mathcraft Set included a slide rule, abacus, protractor, compass, and more. This kid sure looks excited to have one. Or maybe he’s wishing that Santa had brought the bug collecting kit, the weather station, or the chemical lab. All of these and more were featured in Popular Mechanics, December 1964, as good gift ideas for future scientists.

Seriously, though, the slide rule did get us to the moon. If you want to play around with a virtual one, here are free slide rules that you can use on your Android device:

The real article, on the other hand, is getting hard to find. If you’re not careful with your Amazon search, you might wind up with one of these:

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Victrolas for Christmas, 1914

In 1914, Santa Claus probably delivered quite a few new phonographs to American parlors. He had quite a selection available, as shown in the December 6, 1914, advertisement in the Omaha Daily Bee.

Prices ranged from $18.75 to $207.50, with all of them available on credit. The less expensive models could be brought home for $5 down, including a set of records.

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