Christmas During World War II

I started grammar school in 1942, which was right in the middle of World War II.

When the weather started getting cooler and Thanksgiving came, we knew Christmas was right around the corner and the excitement began to build.

Children did not get a lot of toys during the year - this was not due to stingy parents, but because they were not that available.

The toys that had been made in Japan were no longer shipped to us because we were fighting them tooth and toenail, and there were no Chinese toys because they were busy trying to keep the Japanese out of their country.

I never understood how we got firecrackers all during the war.

Didn’t they need that gunpower? Maybe we had a huge supply on hand when the war broke out.

The American toy companies were trying to keep up, but they could not get the raw materials needed to manufacture toys.

That is why we had so many wooden toys, a lot of them made by hand.

Plastic was just coming on the scene and there were no plastic toys like there are today, in fact, very few.

Bicycles were not rationed, but you still could not buy them because our government needed all the steel and rubber for the war effort.

Parents would pass down bikes and tricycles like they did clothes and there were many bikes that were repaired and repainted because that was all Santa could find.

Kids didn’t mind, they knew Santa’s workshop was making real pistols and rifles for our soldiers.

Rag dolls were very popular, and the ones made by some mothers looked like a real work of art.

Two of the rag dolls that the children liked were Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy.

There was a set of children’s books written about these two dolls and that just made them that much more beloved.

There was a shortage of books during the war as well, and we hoped that we would get a new book for Christmas.

In 1943, I got a present from my Aunt Mavis and it was a copy of The Poems of Childhood by James Whitcomb Riley, and I loved that book.

I still have it and don’t trust it to be displayed in my bookcase - I have it safely hidden away in my lingerie drawer along with the medals I won at the Band Festivals in the 1950s.

Another book I liked then were the Big Little Books - these were books that were only about five inches tall, but were several inches thick.

If you flipped the pages the cartoon on the corner of the page became animated.

I looked at a set of these on Ebay and they were selling for $100.

I guess other people must like them too.

I didn’t like them enough to spend $100 on them.

The baby dolls we had were made of rubber, so of course they stopped making them during the war.

We didn’t have grown up dolls like Barbie, so there was a baby doll shortage until they invented a material that took the place of rubber for making dolls.

I just wanted to give you a little window into Christmas in the 1940s.

We didn’t have a lot of worldly things, but we sure had a lot of hope and love.

“Till next time - Gwynn0720@comcast.net

Christmas During World War II

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Christmas During World War II

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Guest Column – Economic Equilibrium is the goal

Faith organizations distribute health supplies and fresh produce to the community

Faith organizations distribute health supplies and fresh produce to the community

Recommended

Florida ranks 4th Best for beekeeping – Local beekeeper weighs in on the benefits of beekeeping in the Sunshine State

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