A 1950s Holiday Food Gift Guide

Wondrous Gifts for Gourmets. Fine Food! Fine Drink! Fine Wares! Day Ten of the TTK Advent Calendar

Wondrous Gifts for Gourmets. Illustration by Hilary Knight, 1956, Gourmet Magazine.

In the same December, 1956 issue of Gourmet magazine I wrote about a few days ago — the Mid-Century Open House post — there is also a guide, a “Holiday Bazaar” with fine foods to send as tasty gifts for the holidays.

The cover page of the guide was created by Hilary Knight, the renowned artist and illustrator of the famous children’s classic, Eloise. More on that in a bit.

Reading the advertisements for each product, I was struck by the flowery, formal and somewhat grand language, that was generously punctuated with exclamation points or capitalized. It was an odd but charming mix, of its time, and reminded me that the 1950s were closer to the Victorian Era and the Gilded Age than to our own time.

I’ve pulled a sentence or two from each advertisement and if you can read the fine print in the ads you’ll see that in some cases you can “send cash” to secure your order.

Here’s a look at some of the delightful food offerings being gifted at the mid-century.

Gourmet’s Holiday Bazaar, 1956

“Marvelous tasting…and in marvelous taste…the gift of a golden-brown Forst Catskills Mountain Smoked Turkey! An unforgettable palate treat…Only we Forsts know the secret of such royal feasting!

“For home decor and after uses, filled with imported PASCALL ENGLISH SWEETS…by CRESCA of course! Famous for Fine Foods since 1878.

“CRAN — the new all-cranberry mixer makes on-the rocks drinks glow with color, sing with flavor!

“For centuries, these luscious candy-cakes were made only by bakers to the Royal Families of Europe…send cash, check or money order today.”

“From the Famous Ferris Groves —consistent winner of BLUE RIBBONS and 1st prize awards for the FINEST grown in the State of Florida.”

“It’s superior flavor, bouquet and body are well worth the few extra pennies.”

“Each gift is preceded with an engraved card from Victor Borge.”

I would’ve sent this Victor Borge Gift Pack as a “Happy Birthday” gift to my pal

Jenny Hammerton

who writes the delicious, informative and whimsical

Dinner and a Movie

for sure! HBD, Jenny!

From Christmas Past

This is the beautiful cover of the issue of Gourmet from December, 1956. In 2022, I wrote about the legendary illustrator, Hilary Knight, who is still with us today at age 98.

If you’d like to learn more about the incredible Mr. Knight, and how I attempted to recreate this cover, the full story is at the link below.

Day Ten of “The Little Town” Advent Calendar

Today, a toy store. 🧸

See you tomorrow!

Jolene