Sometimes, when the Christmas season arrived during World War II, good news didn't always come with it. The war sometimes brought painful news, news of the deaths of brave Americans in battle, which meant sons and loved ones were gone forever. It brought the strains and stresses of combat. At home, the war brought new and divisive issues to the forefront, which often led to social political strain, and the pain of sacrifice.
Thus, as the Christmas season of 1943 approached, Americans learned troubling news. By December 1st, news outlets were reporting that nearly 3,000 Americans had died in the capturing of the island of Tarawa from the Japanese. In North Africa, the popular American military hero, General George Patton, was in trouble, facing heavy media criticism. While visiting wounded soldiers in a hospital, he slapped an American serviceman suffering from shell shock. Some wanted him removed from the service. In Washington D.C., a spokesman for war veterans threatened violent demonstrations after the war if returning servicemen did not receive their fair share of government benefits. In a rancorous, angry debate in the United States Denate, senators Alben Barkley of Kentucky and Willaim Langer of North Dakota exchanged insults, each implying that the other was an elitist, lying fool.
But in the meantime, the holidays went on. If you were a shopper in 1943, seeking that perfect gift for a loved one, here were some of your choices: you could buy a Motorola Cabinet Radio for $120. A typical record player retailed for $69. A small 22-inch bicycle came relatively cheaply, for $3.98. A child’s wagon went for $5.98. Stuffed animals could be had for prices ranging from $3.25 to $8.98.
The theme of the necessity of Americans making sacrifices for the war was never far away. Typical American family photos taken at Christmastime during the war years almost always show family members arranged around large pictures, on the mantle or on a table, of a brother or a dad, in uniform, who could not be home for Christmas. He was away, often overseas, serving in the military, far from home.
Their families yearned to be closer to them, somehow, some way. Of course there was one obvious way to achieve this--send a package! You could send your loved one fighting for Uncle Sam non-perishable food items, clothes, and other Christmas gifts. And during the war, millions of Americans did it. They sent so many packages overseas and to military bases that post offices in some locations warned people to send their packages by October 15th. Otherwise it might not arrive on time. “It would be a Christmas unlike any the U.S. people had ever seen, and one they would long remember,” reported TIME magazine in 1942. “There was hardly a person who had not sent a package, or at least a letter, to a man in uniform; hardly a thoughtful man or woman who would not wonder what it might be like to spend Christmas in a tank on the road to Bizerte or perched in a palm tree in New Guinea.”
In Portland, Oregon, there were 20 railroad cars backed up at the local train stations, filled with parcel post Christmas boxes sent to soldiers at a nearby base.
The local postmaster had to somehow scare up more more manpower in order to deliver them all. But he did.
