20 Things Everyone Remembers About the Sears Christmas Wish Book

It showed up some afternoon in early fall, thick as a phone book and heavy enough to need both arms. You hauled it down to the floor in front of the television, opened it flat, and the back half — the toy half — spread out in front of you like a second Christmas before the first one had even arrived.

To the grown-ups it was a catalog. To you it was a wish list, a daydream, and the official start of the season. The Associated Press once said generations of children treated the Wish Book as a holiday treat all by itself, and if you were one of them, you know exactly why. Here are 20 things you remember about it. If this stirs something up, wander over to our vintage candy you forgot existed or our things from the 1950s you don't see anymore.

1. It arrived at the end of summer

The Wish Book didn't wait for December. Sears released it every year in August or September, so it turned up while the weather was still warm — the first sign, long before the first snow, that Christmas was on its way.

2. It was enormous

This was the “Big Book,” and it earned the name. The earlier editions ran well over 300 pages, a doorstop of a catalog you couldn't read standing up. You had to lie down with it.

3. The toy pages were the whole point

Grown-ups thumbed the front for appliances and clothes. You went straight to the back, where page after page of toys, bikes, dolls and games waited — the part of the book that was really written for you.

4. It was born in hard times

The first Sears Wish Book came out in 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression. A fat catalog full of good things to wish for was a small bit of cheer in a year when most families couldn't buy much of it.

5. The name said everything

Sears called it a lot of things over the years — the “Big Book,” the Christmas catalog — but the one that stuck was the “Wish Book.” No name ever fit a thing better.

6. You could order almost anything from Sears

The catalog empire sold jewelry, tools, farm equipment, pianos — and, in its heyday, even a whole house. Between 1908 and 1942 Sears mailed out more than 70,000 build-it-yourself kit homes, each one shipped in pieces by railroad boxcar.

7. You circled what you wanted

Pencil, pen, crayon — whatever was handy. You went through page by page and marked every single thing you hoped for, as if the circle itself might make it appear under the tree.

8. The pages went soft and dog-eared

By the time December came, your favorite pages had gone limp from handling, the corners folded down so you could find them again in a hurry. The book practically fell open to the bicycle you wanted.

9. You had to share it

There was usually only one copy, and more than one child in the house. Whoever got to it first got the floor, and everyone else waited, not very patiently, for their turn.

10. The grown-ups had their half

While you were lost in the toys, the rest of the book was doing serious work — appliances, tools, clothing and jewelry that ran the household and did real Christmas shopping for the whole family.

11. It went out by the millions

This was no small print run. At its peak the presses turned out as many as seven million copies a year, enough to land one on front porches all across the country.

12. The order form in the back

When the wishing was done, somebody sat down with the order blank, copied out the catalog numbers, and mailed it off — the grown-up ritual that turned all that circling into actual packages.

13. Waiting for the order to come

Once it was mailed, the waiting began. Every delivery, every trip to pick an order up at the Sears counter, carried the hope that this was the box with your name on it.

14. It doubled as your letter to Santa

Why describe what you wanted when you could just point? Plenty of a child's Christmas list came straight out of the Wish Book, page number and all.

15. The way it felt and smelled

Fresh ink, glossy paper, the heft of it in your lap and the riffle of the pages under your thumb — the Wish Book came with its own feeling, and you'd know it anywhere.

16. The long wait until Christmas morning

Weeks of circling and hoping all came down to one morning. Whatever you'd marked in those pages, you finally found out on Christmas Day whether the wishing had worked.

17. Then the big book began to shrink

Times changed, and so did shopping. Sears discontinued its big-book catalogs in the United States in 1993, and the Wish Book that followed was never again the doorstop you remembered.

18. The tiny version nobody expected

By 2005 the mighty catalog had shrunk to a “Little Big Wish Book” just two and a half inches square — about the size of a sticky note, where the original had needed both your arms.

19. It tried to come back

The Wish Book went digital in 2010 so people could flip through it on a phone, and in 2017 Sears brought back a 120-page print edition for one more round — a wink at everyone who remembered the real thing.

20. Up in Canada it lasted a little longer

Sears Canada kept mailing its Wish Book until the company closed its doors in 2018, which means somewhere a child was still circling toys in one not so long ago. For most of us, though, it lives on as a keepsake of Christmases past.

Frequently asked questions

When did the Sears Wish Book start?

The first Sears Wish Book was published in 1933, as a Christmas catalog separate from the company's regular annual Christmas book. Sears released a new one every year in late summer or early fall.

How big did the Wish Book get?

The earlier editions ran well over 300 pages, which is how it earned the nickname “Big Book.” At its height, Sears printed as many as seven million copies a year.

Could you really order a house from Sears?

In the catalog's heyday, yes. From 1908 to 1942 Sears sold more than 70,000 mail-order kit houses, shipped in pieces by railroad boxcar. That was the general catalog — the Christmas Wish Book was the toy-and-gift edition everyone looked forward to. For more vanished everyday wonders, see our things from the 1950s you don't see anymore.

What finally happened to the Wish Book?

Sears discontinued its big-book catalogs in the U.S. in 1993. A tiny “Little Big Wish Book” appeared in 2005, and Sears brought the book back briefly in 2017. In Canada, the Wish Book lasted until the company dissolved in 2018.

Sources

• Sears Wish Book — Wikipedia
• Sears Catalog Home — Wikipedia

Remember circling the pages? Play our trivia quizzes and bring back a little of that old anticipation.