The making of consumer patriotism: mobilizing Christmas in Sweden during the Second World War

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the Second World War Swedish citizens were encouraged to send gifts to military personnel spending Christmas on duty. Orchestrated by a coalition of commercial and military interests as well as unions, women’s and employer’s organizations, the annual Frontline Christmas Gift campaigns blended traditional rituals of gift-giving with patriotic objectives. Analyzing archival documents and press clippings the study shows how this campaign both preserved and adapted consumer practices as well as gendered norms throughout the war. Primarily framing women as the givers and male soldiers as the receivers, the campaign reinforced gender structures and discourses while also subtly adapting them and embedding the whole exercise in Swedish consumer culture. The study contends that the Frontline Christmas Gift campaign not only maintained but also transformed public and private spheres during wartime. By extending the family-centric tradition of Christmas giving to a national level, it strengthened societal bonds and reinforced the Swedish wartime narrative of national unity and preparedness.