Christmas at the Arcade: Public Spectacle, Consumer Capitalism, and the American Childhood

Abstract

The Dayton Arcade, like the rest of downtown Dayton, transformed into a dreamworld during Christmastime. Fantastic characters from tales of old marched down West Third Street, while the soft glow of lights, bright decorations, and the excitement of a reindeer pen at the courthouse led hundreds of Daytonians through a wonderland of Christmas cheer, and perhaps more importantly, Christmas presents. The Dayton Arcade remade itself during the holiday season, investing in print advertisements, decor, and ritual. Through this process, Arcade retailers created a hotbed for a new holiday commercial exchange that hinged on the parent-child gift-giving relationship. For many Daytonians, the parent-child relationship, reflected in the spatial and commercial holiday transformation of the Arcade, had already become an important element of childhood in America. The commercialization of Christmas stretches back to the nineteenth century. At that time, the rise of American middle-class culture fundamentally reshaped the holiday. Historian Stephen Nissenbaum argued in his history of Christmas, “Christmas itself had played a role in bringing about both the consumer revolution and the ‘domestic revolution’ that created the modern family.”1 After the 1850s, Christmas celebration was radically transformed by middle-class values. A key component involved the commercialization of the holiday. In affixing the gift-giving relationship to the parent and child, new Christmas traditions, rooted in fantasy and wonder,