10 Astonishing Vintage Christmas Ads You Have to See to Believe

Because nothing says Christmas like a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer

Cross promotional ad for Chesterfield cigarettes and the film “Hong Kong” starring Ronald Reagan, 1952 (public domain)

A carton of cigarettes standing in for a Christmas card may seem strange today, but in the not too distant past, it was a thing. When tobacco companies were maintaining the fiction that cigarettes were good for you, nobody thought twice about stuffing stockings with cartons of cancer sticks.

Here are a few more ads that remind us of how attitudes have changed:

Ad for Hoover vacuum cleaner (public domain)

I guess some people would like to get a vacuum cleaner for Christmas, but it’s not very exciting. After all, if you need one, you buy it yourself. Isn’t it a little lame to turn something you had to buy anyway into a Christmas present?

It’s pretty clear that a husband who considers a vacuum cleaner an excellent gift for his wife isn’t planning to use it himself. “You can have the day off today, Honey, it’s Christmas, but tomorrow it’s back to work.”