Course: English Composition II (Purdue University)
Source: Scott C. Martin, "The Modern Christmas in America," Journal of Social History, Vol. 28, No. 2, Winter 1994 (book review of William B. Waits, The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving)
Difficulty: Intermediate Prerequisites: Familiarity with basic cultural studies concepts; prior reading on American social history helpful but not required.
This review covers William B. Waits' study of how Christmas gift giving in America evolved from the 1880s to the late twentieth century, and what that evolution reveals about social relationships, consumerism, and cultural anxiety. The book sits at the intersection of cultural history, anthropology, and consumer studies, drawing heavily on Marcel Mauss's theories of gift exchange. If you are studying American cultural history, consumer culture, or the social functions of rituals and holidays, this is where the course connects those threads. You do not need prior knowledge of Mauss, but a general sense of how industrialisation changed everyday life in America will help.
Waits traces how American Christmas gifts shifted from handmade, personal items to mass-produced goods, and how that shift created new social anxieties around gift giving. The book is praised for revealing the links between commerce, advertising, and personal relationships, but criticised for ignoring religion and relying on a narrow evidence base.
Gift exchange (anthropological sense)
The practice of giving and receiving gifts as a social act that establishes, maintains, or signals relationships between people. In anthropology, gift exchange is never "just" a transfer of objects; it carries obligations and meanings.
Think of it as: every gift is also a message about how the giver sees the relationship.
Marcel Mauss / Maussian gift theory
French sociologist and anthropologist (1872-1950) whose work The Gift (1925) argued that gift exchanges in all societies create bonds of reciprocity and obligation. Waits uses Mauss's framework as his theoretical foundation.
In simple terms, this means: gifts are never free; they always come with social strings attached.
Decontaminating mechanisms
Waits's term for the strategies (gift certificates, universal gift lists, advertising reassurances) that emerged to reduce the anxiety of giving mass-produced, impersonal gifts. They "decontaminate" the gift of its market associations.
Think of it as: ways retailers helped shoppers feel that a store-bought gift was still personal.
Christmas Club savings accounts
Bank savings programmes, popular from the early twentieth century, where depositors saved small amounts weekly throughout the year specifically for Christmas spending. Waits traces their origins as part of the broader commercialisation of Christmas.
In simple terms, this means: a structured way for ordinary families to budget for holiday gift buying.
Secular/religious dichotomy (in the context of Christmas studies)
The analytical division of Christmas practices into secular activities (gift giving, decorating, feasting) and religious activities (church attendance, nativity displays). The reviewer criticises Waits for adopting this division too rigidly and for assuming the secular side is the only one worth studying.
Think of it as: Waits treats Christmas as a shopping event rather than a religious holiday, and the reviewer says that is a blind spot.
Uses anthropological frameworks (especially Mauss) to read Christmas gift giving as a window into social roles and relationships
Primary sources: popular magazine articles, Christmas advertisements, business trade journal reports on holiday retailing, 1880s to the present
Central claim: the shift from handmade to manufactured gifts fundamentally changed what gift giving meant in American culture
Late 19th century: gifts were handmade, individually selected, and carried strong personal meaning
The gift itself was a statement about the giver's relationship with the recipient
Early 20th century: expansion of manufacturing made store-bought gifts the norm
This felt like a contamination of personal warmth with market values
Choosing the wrong gift now risked exposing that a relationship was not as close as hoped
Gift certificates: let recipients choose their own gifts, sidestepping the risk of a bad choice while avoiding the impersonality of cash
Advertising campaigns: retailers reassured shoppers by promoting "universal" gifts (e.g. Hamilton watches, Stetson hats) as items "everyone wanted"
These mechanisms served a double purpose: easing consumer anxiety and driving sales
Waits examines exchanges between parents and children, husbands and wives, employers and workers, friends and relatives
Each relationship type carried different gift-giving expectations and pressures
The Christmas bonus is analysed as an economic and social institution, not merely a perk
Retailers and manufacturers turned Christmas into their most important sales season
Post-World War II irony: the holiday became so economically dominant that unpredictable consumer behaviour could cause financial disaster
Business leaders grew anxious about forecasting Christmas demand, leading to "wariness and caution" rather than celebration
Waits flips the usual narrative: businesses did not simply exploit Christmas; they became hostage to it
Strengths the reviewer identifies:
Rich observations on gender roles, economic relationships, and community
Effective use of primary sources to show how commerce shaped private life
Covers a previously neglected subject
Weaknesses the reviewer identifies:
Ignores the religious dimension of Christmas entirely
Assumes economic motivations always outweigh religious ones
Relies on a narrow evidence base (popular magazines, no religious periodicals)
Misses obvious cultural touchstones, e.g. O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi
Secondary sources are dated, making it difficult to connect to newer scholarship
The tension Waits describes between personal meaning and commercial convenience is visible every December in debates over gift cards versus "thoughtful" gifts. His framework helps explain why people still feel guilty about giving cash even when recipients would prefer it.
The book's analysis of how retailers became dependent on Christmas spending is directly relevant to modern retail economics, where holiday-season performance can make or break a company's annual results.
Students often assume Waits argues that businesses "invented" Christmas commercialism for profit. He does not. His final chapter shows that businesses became trapped by the very commercial Christmas they helped create, unable to predict consumer behaviour.
Students sometimes treat the secular/religious divide in Christmas as settled fact. The reviewer warns that this is an oversimplification, and that secular practices like gift giving may carry religious meanings underneath.
It is tempting to read the shift from handmade to manufactured gifts as a simple decline narrative ("things used to be more meaningful"). Waits's point is subtler: the shift created new social mechanisms and anxieties, not just a loss.
Do not confuse Marcel Mauss's anthropological concept of gift exchange with everyday usage. Mauss's framework involves obligation and reciprocity, not just generosity.
⚠️ Be able to explain Waits's central argument: the transition from handmade to manufactured gifts created cultural anxiety, and retailers developed specific mechanisms to address it.
⚠️ Know the reviewer's main criticism: Waits ignores religion and assumes economic motivations dominate. This is a good example of how a book reviewer evaluates methodology and evidence base.
⚠️ The post-WWII irony (businesses becoming hostage to Christmas spending) is a strong essay point. It reverses the expected narrative and shows nuanced historical analysis.
⚠️ If asked about the book review as a genre, this source is a model: it summarises the argument, identifies strengths, names specific weaknesses with evidence, and delivers an overall assessment.
True or False: Waits argues that businesses deliberately created the commercialisation of Christmas purely for profit.
False. He shows the relationship was more complex, and that businesses became vulnerable to unpredictable holiday spending.
Fill in the blank: Waits draws on the anthropological work of ______ to frame gift giving as a social act carrying obligation and reciprocity.
Marcel Mauss
True or False: The reviewer praises Waits for thoroughly addressing the religious dimensions of Christmas.
False. This is the reviewer's central criticism.
Fill in the blank: Gift certificates are an example of what Waits calls "anxiety-reducing and ______ mechanisms."
Decontaminating
True or False: In the late 19th century, most American Christmas gifts were mass-produced.
False. They were handmade and personally selected.
Q: What is Waits's central argument about the shift from handmade to manufactured Christmas gifts?
A: Waits argues that the transition to manufactured gifts "contaminated" what was meant to be a spontaneous expression of personal warmth with the impersonal values of the marketplace. This created widespread anxiety among gift givers, which in turn prompted retailers and manufacturers to develop mechanisms (gift certificates, targeted advertising, universal gift lists) to make commercial gifts feel personal again.
Q: How does the reviewer criticise Waits's treatment of the secular/religious divide?
A: The reviewer argues that Waits adopts a simplistic secular/religious dichotomy without considering that secular activities like gift giving may have significant religious underpinnings. By excluding religious periodicals from his evidence base and assuming economic motivations always dominate, Waits misses the ways religious values may have shaped consumer choices.
Q: Explain the post-WWII irony that Waits identifies regarding businesses and Christmas.
A: After turning Christmas into the most important retail event of the year, businesses found themselves unable to predict consumer behaviour accurately. A season designed as a marketing bonanza could just as easily become a financial disaster. Christmas had grown so large in the postwar economy that it became a source of anxiety for the very business leaders who had promoted it.
Q: What role does Marcel Mauss play in Waits's analytical framework?
A: Mauss's anthropological theory of gift exchange provides Waits's theoretical foundation. Mauss argued that gifts in all societies carry obligations and signal relationships. Waits applies this lens to American Christmas gift giving, treating each gift exchange as an indicator of social roles, personal intimacy, and cultural expectations.
Q: What is one specific example of a "decontaminating mechanism" that Waits discusses, and how does it work?
A: Gift certificates. They were created by merchandisers to address the fear of giving an unwanted or inappropriate gift. By letting recipients choose their own gifts, certificates removed the risk of a poor choice while avoiding the perceived impersonality of giving plain cash.
This connects to consumer culture studies because Waits's analysis of how advertising shaped personal behaviour is a textbook case of the production-of-demand thesis (compare with Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders or Thorstein Veblen's conspicuous consumption).
The anthropological framing links to broader discussions of ritual and exchange in sociology and cultural studies. If your course covers Mauss, Durkheim, or the social functions of ritual, this review provides a concrete American case study.
The reviewer's critique of Waits's secular/religious dichotomy connects to ongoing debates in religious studies about whether any "secular" practice in a historically Christian society can be fully separated from its religious origins.
Christmas gift giving, cultural history of Christmas, American Christmas traditions, Marcel Mauss gift exchange, gift economy, consumerism and holidays, commercialisation of Christmas, gift certificates history, decontaminating mechanisms, Christmas bonus history, Christmas Club savings, secular vs religious Christmas, holiday retail economics, Waits Modern Christmas in America, book review social history, English Composition II Purdue, consumer anxiety, manufactured gifts vs handmade gifts, advertising and gift giving, O. Henry Gift of the Magi, postwar American consumer culture