A lot of us are in the thick of holiday shopping right now.
Even as we talk about how the holidays are supposed to be about more than presents… there are lots of presents.
Well, a little over a century ago, a group of women drew a line in the sand, saying they were through with the overly commercial side of Christmas.
Their movement was known as the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving, or SPUG. (To paraphrase Tupac, what can I do but be a Spug until I’m dead and gone?)
And it was unusual in that it brought several social classes together toward a common goal.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the customary gift for another adult was something artistic and decorative.
You wouldn’t get someone a practical gift unless you were extremely close to them; otherwise how would you know what they even needed?
Some very prominent ladies in wealthy society thought this was excessive and left everyone in their houses with a lot of extra clutter.
At the same time, women in working class families were pushing back on a different gift custom.
Back then, a lot of companies expected workers to get something for the boss, and in some cases the cost of those gifts was more than the workers could really spare.
So SPUG became their common cause.
They championed simplicity, practicality and usefulness in gift giving… if gifts even needed to be given at all.
And around 1912 and 1913, their efforts got a lot of attention.
Supporters encouraged their friends and neighbors to get each other practical stuff, or not get each other anything.
Sure, one newspaper columnist suggested that the most useful thing the Spugs could get for Christmas was a good swift kick, but the movement won support from former president Theodore Roosevelt.
He sent in his dues of 10 cents to receive an official button and the honor of becoming the first “man Spug.”
The movement stalled out soon after, as the prominent philanthropists who led the movement turned their attention toward World War I humanitarian work.
Although if you’re feeling like the holidays are just a lot of running around from store to store trying to find deals so you can dole out this and that for people on your gift giving list?
Maybe it’s better to just walk away from it all and put on a Spug button. Or maybe a button with a better acronym.
Today in 1773, colonists in Boston Harbor known as the Sons of Liberty protested British taxes and laws by throwing 342 chests of tea off ships and into the water.
This huge moment on the eventual road to American independence is known today as the Boston Tea Party, but that name didn’t come along until the 1820s.
Originally people just called it “the destruction of the tea,” which is catchy in its way.
Only You Can Prevent Useless Gifts (JSTOR)
The Destruction of the Tea (Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum)
You don’t have to turn in your Spug button to back our show on Patreon, because it’s very practical
Image via Newspapers.com
