A holiday shopping bag (detail) showing Santa, dressed in a space suit, flying over the earth. Right side panel reads: “Christmas At the Dawn of a New Decade,” in electronic type. Paper with white raffia handles, designed by Bob Alcorn. (Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum collection)
In American cities large and small, especially between 1920 and 1960, holiday displays were both a public treat and a commercial enterprise. At Christmas, shopping malls across the country still feature visits with Santa and stores offer seasonal shopping bags to hold holiday purchases. Explore a selection of holiday shopping bags from the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
