An 1850s Christmas

Christmas will be here a week from tomorrow, celebrated with loved ones and good cheer despite all the tribulations of our modern times. As Christmas 1852 rolled around, the impact of the California Gold Rush—good and bad elements alike—was still a monumental social and economic influence, even though the invasive swarms of gold-fevered opportunists from all over the world had commenced four full years earlier.

California had been admitted to the Union two years past, but the general population, the flow of goods and services, out-back gold camps, and even the boundaries of its new 27 counties, were still in a turbulent, topsy-turvy, state of flux and reconfiguration. In a population recently tallied by the state itself at 260,949 (still mostly male) genuine settlers might have been the minority; Yet in the years before the gold discovery, hundreds of families had arrived in covered wagons, and more were still coming.

Transplanted treasure-hunting easterners were a stable, growing market for town merchants, who naturally hastened to let these folks know that they could celebrate Christmas in their accustomed style, with items selected from the shopkeeper’s wares. 

Under the heading “Santa Claus’ Headquarters” a Stockton merchant waxed poetic while announcing what he had available for gift giving in a San Joaquin Republican advertisement dated December, 1852: 

At A. Kohler’s Toy store, Stockton Street near Jackson:

All you who love the babies

And would not see them cry,

Just walk right up to Kohler’s

And when you get there—buy!

... buy the largest assortment of Toys and Fancy Goods ever imported to this market!

100,000 marbles of all kinds; 5,000 kid and wax dolls; Ladies’ work and fancy baskets, work patterns worsted; perforated cards, etc.; drums, wagons, bedsteads; stoves; tea and coffee sets, China, crockery, wood and pewter; together with thousands of toys of every description.

Musical instruments, instruction books for all kinds of instruments, sheet music, together with a large assortment of Italian violin and guitar strings, bow hair, bridges, etc. at wholesale and retail.

No worries for gift-givers, especially parents, at Christmas 1852; Santa had everything—at least, at Kohler’s in Stockton.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas.