Mildly Infuriating

Ive stories from my great granparents, and old movies as my reference. The fact that it was impossible to mass manufacture cheap plastic crap then is a large indicator in to how its changed in the last 100-120 years. The whole world was set up differently, and over consumption wasnt at all like it is today.

but maybe this will help someone who knows no history of the land. Though its really a fluffy article. Feel free to look up the histories of christmas in your own time. Im not deep diving rn.

https://oldworldchristmas.com/blogs/the-yule-blog/christmas-through-the-decades-best-christmas-traditions-from-1900-to-today

and another (maybe better)

https://dengarden.com/news/what-was-christmas-like-100-years-ago

from the second link:

For centuries, Christmas was first and foremost a religious observance. But by the early 1900s, the holiday shifted toward consumerism, according to Democracy & Me.

Other commercial Christmas traditions of today also began to bloom in the late 1800s and early 1900s, such as glass tree ornaments, Christmas cards, Christmas gift-giving and Christmas charity, per History Today. That said, these customs were much more modest than they are today — for instance, in 1900, only one in five people in the U.S. had a Christmas tree.

To edit, this is an USian perspective (the museum is in the state Gerogia from the second article). How ever it was different in other places where christmas is a big holiday, the time line of mass manufacturing is not all that different. The US is really known for it's loud and boisterous ways, and imo, is a leader in overconsumption at cost.

Guess I am deep diving. The second dengarden article offers a source "Democracy & Me" and here it is, plainly for you, for reference. This is actually where Id click first, it is the most comprehensive.

https://democracyandme.org/christmases-long-long-ago-the-evolution-of-christmas-in-the-19th-and-20th-centuries/

Christmas in the 1800’s Although Christmas celebrations date back to the third century, many of the Christmas traditions celebrated today have origins in the 1800’s. The nineteenth Century brought about a transformation of the Christmas holiday from a relatively quiet religious observance to a grand cultural celebration marked by tradition, transformation, and the influence of many European traditions. Indeed, Christmas traditions and customs developed during the 1800’s still impact holiday practices in the US and the Western world today. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Christmas was a primarily religious holiday in many parts of the world. However, as the century progressed, the holiday underwent a gradual transformation, particularly in Western societies.