The 1920s bring to mind the age of flapper fashion and jazz music, but the years also brought new fashions in art and architecture, from art deco to modernism. Frank Lloyd Wright was active in this decade, and in 1927, Charles Lindbergh made the first solo flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis. Hot toys included die-cast metal toys, the Raggedy Ann doll, and, toward the end of the decade, the yo-yo.

Your Christmas Budget in the 1920s

At less than $40.00 (even in 1920s dollars), a Persian rug would have made a good investment in both décor and value.

• Winter overcoat: $18.50

• Fountain pen: $2.50

• Silk hat: $7.50

• Victrola brand phonograph: $99.80

• RCA Radiola (“musical quality unsurpassed”): $115.00

• RCA Radiola with loudspeaker: $150.00

• Persian rug: $38.75

• One-pound box of chocolates: $6.50

• Ladies’ silk umbrella: $10.00

• Toy tool chest: $1.55

• “Juvenile model” bicycle: $48.75

• Girls’ ice skates: $5.00

• “Beautiful stately jointed doll” with wig, dress, shoes, and stockings: $1.95

In the News in the 1920s

“Peace on Earth” Near Fulfillment

—Boston Globe headline, December 25, 1921, lead story referring to progress in a Washington peace conference of major international powers

Prohibition Makes Its Presence Felt

Shortly after the Volstead Act went into effect, federal authorities issued an announcement, apparently meant for inclusion in Christmas Eve editions of the nation’s newspapers, that the use of “fermented wines for sacramental purposes” during religious services would be forbidden. The substitution of a “specially prepared fruit juice” was said to be under consideration by major religious leaders.

Way of Women at Christmas Puzzles a Woman

Why Not Start List Now (December 5) and Do Your Christmas Giving Sensibly, with Regard to Feelings of Others, as well as for Time, Strength, and Money? Leaving Everything until Last Minute Makes Season Harder for Clerks and Spoils Holiday!

—Headline of an article in the December 5, 1926, Providence Journal, urging procrastinating wives to show a little more thought during the holiday season. The article is accompanied by an illustration of an unnamed acquaintance of the author’s who “used to dread Christmas and spent the whole holiday in bed, utterly spent, and with ice-bags at her head and feet.”