What People Bought in 1900

In 1900, gifts tended toward small luxuries with items that felt indulgent yet weren’t wildly expensive. An embroidered handkerchief, a pair of silk stockings, or a delicate lace collar made thoughtful presents, especially when wrapped in decorative boxes that many people saved for years.

Women loved ornate hair combs and hat pins, often crafted with faux jewels or embellishments that mimicked ivory. These were the kinds of items that let middle-class families enjoy a touch of Gilded Age glamour without overextending themselves.

Books were perennial favorites (hint, hint). A beautifully bound volume of poetry or a children’s storybook with bright colors carried both cultural and moral appeal, and the classics never failed. Giving a book suggested refinement, and a gifted one was given pride of place on a parlor shelf.

Candy, too, was a holiday mainstay. Confectioners offered elaborate boxes of chocolates tied in ribbons or individually wrapped, a sweet luxury that felt modern and festive. People would press against shop windows to admire holiday displays made entirely from sugar and cocoa.

For those who could afford more dramatic gifts, technology had begun to work its charm. The Kodak Brownie camera, introduced in 1900, became a sensation. The camera was inexpensive enough to tempt ordinary families, yet magical in its promise to capture life effortlessly.

Bicycles remained a popular status symbol, and the phonograph, while still a costly investment, was the dream gift of many music-loving households. Early electric appliances existed, but only the wealthiest of homes wired for electricity could consider them.

Children’s gifts tended to be sturdier and simpler: tin soldiers, marbles, dollhouses, painted wooden toys, and the newest craze, the plush toy, was just beginning to catch on in the early years of the century.

How People Shopped in 1900

Nearly everything required personal interaction. Nothing was self-serve. A clerk would present items one by one, a “cash boy” or “cash girl” would send the money through a pneumatic tube to a central cashier, and another employee would wrap the purchase by hand. Holiday shopping could feel like a choreographed dance, bustling but polite on the surface, even as exhausted shop girls worked long hours behind it all.

Not everyone had access to such urban wonders, of course. Mail-order catalogues were a lifeline for rural families. Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward delivered the world to the farmhouse doorstep: clothing, toys, lace curtains, saddles, tools, even violins. Families often spent evenings flipping through and dog-earing catalog pages together, circling dream gifts in the weeks before Christmas.

Since most people worked six days a week, Saturday nights were the prime shopping time. Streets glowed with electric lamps, and shop windows offered warmth and light in the cold. Streetcars rumbled by, overflowing with bundled-up passengers carrying paper-wrapped parcels tied in string. There was no tapping a credit card or checking out online—cash was still the norm, unless a family had a long-standing charge account with a trusted shop.