Vintage Chicago Tribune: Holiday traditions — Rudolph, Suzy Snowflake, ‘This Christmas’ and more
Imagine yourself snuggled up next to a roaring fire with a warm beverage in your hand — admiring the snowfall outside, Chicago.
Given today’s weather — that’s not too hard. :)
If you’re stuck inside the next few days, then you’ll want to read all about how our fair city has celebrated Christmas and Hanukkah through the years. In some ways, Chicago has redefined how the rest of the United States — and even the world — marks these occasions.
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Thanks for reading! Happy holidays!
— Kori Rumore, visual reporter
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A plea by a ‘Good Fellow’ in 1909 inspired thousands of Chicagoans to become Secret Santas to the city’s children
In 1909, one Chicagoan attempted to inspire an entire army of anonymous donors to rise up with an appeal that appeared on the front page of the Tribune.
“Last Christmas and New Year’s eve you and I went out for a good time and spent from $10 to $200. Last Christmas morning over 5,000 children awoke to an empty stocking — the bitter pain of disappointment that Santa Claus had forgotten them. …”
... It was signed simply: “Good Fellow.” Read more.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in Chicago by Montgomery Ward copywriter Robert L. May to sell toys in 1939. Here’s how the popular Christmas character — and its author — went down in history.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was conceived for a purely Scrooge-like reason — to make money.
Thankfully, its creator saw the Montgomery Ward marketing campaign as an opportunity to be as bold in his writing as the fantastical flying stag with a blindingly bright beak he invented was when called upon to pull Santa Claus’ sleigh through fog. Read more.
‘This Christmas’: How a Chicago postal worker and Donny Hathaway created a holiday classic
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” nail the melancholy; Springsteen’s “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” has the carefree silliness; and Stevie Wonder’s “Someday at Christmas” gets the heart-tugging plea for peace.
Only “This Christmas” captures it all — and a bit of sex.
That the history of the song is nearly as rich — full of promise and longing and loss — is the garland on the tree. That “This Christmas” is also a Chicago song — written by a Chicagoan, performed by Chicagoans and recorded in Chicago — is the star at the top, Tribune columnist Christopher Borrelli wrote in 2017. Read more.
Debating Dan Fogelberg’s ‘Same Old Lang Syne’: Beloved holiday classic, or worst thing to come out of Peoria?
John Biemer: Some songs understand that Christmas can be a mix of joy and melancholy
‘A Holly Jolly Christmas’ for WLIT: Here’s why the Chicago station switches to a holiday format in November
The persevering spirit of the season: A look back in photos of holiday scenes in Chicago
Photo editor Marianne Mather, who oversees the curation of vintage images for Vintage Chicago Tribune, delved into the Tribune’s archives for a selection of photos that reflect some of the best things the season has to offer. They are a reminder of why this time of year means so much to so many of us. See more photos.
Photo gallery: Hanukkah celebrations around the city
The Jewish Festival of Lights, observed for eight days and nights usually at the end of November or into December, includes the lighting of candles on a nine-branched candelabrum called a menorah and eating traditional foods, such as latkes. See more photos.
Keepers of the flame: Jewish restaurants in Chicagoland honoring tradition while forging new paths
Jelly doughnuts: How to make the ultimate Hanukkah pastry
Chicago’s first Christmas tree in 1913 came from a novel idea: Why not display a giant tree for everyone to celebrate?
Comfort and joy. That’s what unites us, despite our differences, during the holiday season. It’s a simple idea, really. Yet, how to make it happen? How do you get people out of their homes and together outside at the same time in the same place to share in the Christmas spirit?
You need a really tall tree. Read more.
Chicago’s Christmas tree in Millennium Park: Where it comes from and when the lighting ceremony takes place
Suzy Snowflake joyfully signaled winter’s start — and was a sad reminder that it wouldn’t last
For many kids of the 1960s and ‘70s in Chicago, the Christmas season officially started when the children’s shows “Ray Rayner and His Friends” and “Garfield Goose and Friends” began to air old-timey Christmas cartoons. Read more.
Photo gallery: Holiday shopping through the decades
Mandel Bros. and Marshall Field’s department stores drew huge crowds at holiday time, even at the start of the 1900s. See more photos.
Ron Grossman: Goldblatt’s, the merchant king of blue-collar neighborhoods, brought Christmas in January to our Chicago apartment
Englewood’s shopping district rivaled that of the Loop — but it fell victim to rise of suburban malls, white flight
84 years of Sears Christmas catalogs: See what’s inside
World War II rationing led to homefront ingenuity at Christmas
During the war in the 1940s, the challenge was finding alternatives for traditional dishes whose makings had vanished from grocery shelves. Homemakers found ingenious ways to make do with what was available. Read more.
Boots, kettles, snowmen, penguins and mugs: More than 25 years of Christkindlmarket Chicago keepsakes
Here’s a look back — a virtual cupboard — of every mug produced for Christkindlmarket, Chicago’s version of a German open-air Christmas market, since 1996. See more photos.
When the Christmas spirit foundered in Chicago
They called him Captain Santa. For 25 years, Capt. Herman Schuenemann sailed fresh-cut trees from the northern tip of Lake Michigan to the southwest corner of the Clark Street bridge.
For Chicagoans, his arrival meant one thing: Christmas was just around the corner. Read more.
Photo gallery: Remembering the Rouse Simmons — the Christmas tree ship
Photo gallery: The Walnut Room at Macy’s on State Street
For many, visiting the iconic restaurant on the seventh floor of the store formerly known as Marshall Field’s, and now Macy’s, on State Street in Chicago, is a holiday tradition. See more photos.
Louisa Chu: An insider’s Christmas guide to The Walnut Room and one of Chicago’s best holiday traditions
Louisa Chu: In search of Mrs. Hering — a food critic’s quest to find the woman behind Chicago’s historic chicken pot pie
Louisa Chu: ‘Mrs. Hering’ found — more than Walnut Room’s historic pot pie behind the real Mrs. Haring in Chicago
Heidi Stevens: For 59 years, she’s treated a family of 9 siblings to dinner at the Walnut Room. This year, they brought the Walnut Room to her.
Avocado Poinsettia Pie and cold Sea Foam Jell-O Salad: Testing vintage Chicago Tribune Christmas recipes from the ‘50s and ‘60s
My search for the grossest-sounding vintage Christmas recipe published in the Tribune settled, fittingly enough, on something the color of the Grinch’s fur — “Hot Avocado Pie Yule Delight” — a bizarre concoction from 1964. Read more.
Meet the winners: Tribune’s 2022 Holiday Cookie Contest
Holiday Cookies: Tribune’s cookbook of 25 years of prizewinning recipes
Will Chicago see a white Christmas this year? Here’s what more than 150 years of weather data predict for Dec. 25.
The most snowfall on Christmas Day in Chicago happened in 1950, when 5.1 inches blanketed the ground at Midway Airport. Forecasters predicted light snow for that day. Read more.
Chicago’s Christmas weather: The warmest and coldest since 1871
Brrrrr down: A look at the coldest Chicago Bears games at Soldier Field
Join our Chicagoland history Facebook group for more from Chicago’s past.
Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Ron Grossman and Marianne Mather at rgrossman@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com.
