Historic Christmas gifts — Gift of knowledge

Call it the gift of knowledge.

“Fred A. Davis, Fort Edward, has a few more sets of the Encyclopedia Britannica to sell at the introductory price,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Dec. 8, 1890. “This is a cheap and useful Christmas present. Call at his store and leave your order so he can have complete sets to deliver to you before Christmas.”

In other unique Christmas gift ideas collected from northern New York historic newspapers:

• Get one before they are gone.

“Have you seen the display of holiday silk umbrellas in (B.B.) Fowler’s window? If not, you had best take a look and make your selection at once,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 16, 1890. “You’ll acknowledge you’ve never seen a handsomer lot.”

• Here is one way to light up, pun intended, the holidays.

“Young ladies who are in search of something suitable to present to their best fellow at Christmas time, and also married ladies who want to make their husbands happy with a gift of some kind, are reminded that a box of O’Leary and Feeney’s celebrated ‘Free for All’ cigars would prove very acceptable, providing your husband or lover is fond of a smoke,” the Glens Falls cigar maker located on the second floor of 136 Glen St. advertised in The Morning Star on Dec. 17, 1890.

• “A banjo, mandolin, guitar, violin or cornet would make a suitable Christmas gift. Either of these instruments can be found at Madigan’s Newsroom and Music Store, 4 Warren Street,” the retailer advertised in The Morning Star on Dec. 18, 1893.
• “L.P. Juvet has just received a large invoice of gold spectacles and gold eyeglasses for Christmas presents,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 22, 1893. “Correct glasses furnished afterwards without extra cost.”
• “The government played special providence this Christmas and coined $100,000 in new silver quarters and half dollars to be ready for the American people to present to one another as Christmas gifts at these hard times,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 25, 1893.
• Washington County Sheriff Clyde Cook gave a pair of socks as a Christmas gift to each of the 18 inmates at the Washington County jail in 1973.
• “Despite the fact that you’re here under different conditions than you’d like to be, we’d like to give you something so that you’re not completely forgotten, something you can use while you’re here,” the sheriff told inmates at a roast pork luncheon on Christmas Day, according to a Jan. 4, 1974 Post-Star report.