Does anybody still contribute to a Christmas Club account?
I guess the question really is, do banks still offer them during these times, when many people live paycheck to paycheck?
That's a good question. A quick look online reveals that, surprisingly, they're still around. First Federal of Lorain still has one, and Northwest offers something called a Holiday Account, which I assume is the equivalent.
But neither of these organizations seem to devote any advertising dollars (or even social media posts) to promote these clubs.
Anyway, that wasn't the case 70 years ago. Just about every local bank or savings & loan promoted their Christmas Clubs in the "Gift Ideas for a Jolly Christmas" catalog (featured on yesterday's post).
Here are the three Club ads, for First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Lorain, Lorain Banking Company (which became Lorain National, and later, Northwest) and Citizens Home and Savings Association.
6 comments:
Dan I'm sure you're well aware that with Boarder tape, an exacto knife, and clip art you could just about design any type of ad. For anything special the art dept would pitch in. I can remember when I first started at the Journal in 1980, Clearview Hobby handed me a few pieces of artwork from a couple of their sales catalogs and wanted a full page. No direction, no branded logo, full artistic license. Luckily my boss stayed late and helped me put together a great looking ad. He pulled a giant Santa and holiday style lettering from the clip art books to fill the majority of the space and we added the sales items to fill in the open spaces. The owner loved it! looking back, besides the relationships made, taking notes from a local business owner and transforming that raw information to an ad that over 67,000 households viewed was pretty neat.
People have lived paycheck to paycheck in every era. That's one of the biggest reasons the Christmas Club account existed. It allowed anyone to put aside a bit of cash somewhat painlessly so that they had a big amount at the end to put toward Christmas.
My parents always had Christmas Club accounts for that very reason in the 60s and 70s. I even had one myself as a kid, for a dollar a week, when I had a paper route.
My family was squarely in the lay-a-way camp.
I used it myself, a few times, buying jewelry for sweethearts who eventually dumped me.
Then, I got smart and found somebody who didn't like jewelry!
Wasn't 600 a lawyer's office, later on?
Or was that 300?
My mom had her own answer to large Christmas present bills and hence the need for a Christmas club savings account. First, she agreed with our aunts and uncles not to exchange gifts between our families. That immediately eliminated scores of relatives who got gifts. Later she mandated that any gift to the remaining lucky few in our immediate family could not exceed five dollars per person, a sum gradually raised over the decades to $25.
Then came the coup-de-grace: each person could receive only one gift. Period. Mom could do that secure in her knowledge that her birthday was just a week after Christmas when she would collect a bounty of presents from all of us.
As a child I felt gruntled as the giftee and challenged as a gift-giver (for example, I once bought for my grandfather a wooden coat hanger; even mom thought that was too chintzy and told me to find something else with more "keepsake " value.)
But mom was right. Giving gifts at Christmas was far less stressful, both on the wallet and on the mind. And some of the more creative gifts were surprising and/or hilarious, despite the occasional "What-the-hell-is-this?!!" moments.
My maternal grandparents raised six children, so I had a large number of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. My grandma and grandpa held a party each year and bought gifts for everyone. No one else had to buy anything.
We lived a block away from them, so I was pressed into service annually to help wrap all these gifts. I still hate wrapping presents.
As for Christmas Clubs, weren't they a nice deal for the financial institutions? The contributions amounted to an interest-free loan to them.
Still have a cherished Currier and Ives candle my mom got for her Christmas club account in the 60's. It's from First Federal the only bank we used. I light once each Christmas for myself to see the sparkly scene and reminisce. My shopping spot in the 60's for my parents was D and K where one year I got my dad a putty knife, only slightly better than a wooden hanger lol. My mom a silver-colored heart shaped trinket box lined w material resembling velvet. I still have, and it holds my little bead bracelet w your last name I rec'd at birth from St Joes.
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