By the late 1920’s the holiday parading and store-Santas that originated with Macy’s had reached tremendous proportions across the country.Many department store Santas even had their own radio-shows.

Around this time, some adults began expressing anxiety over what they deemed to be the excessive commercialization of Santa Claus. In what William Leach terms the ‘business cult of Santa Claus” the jolly elf’s image began appearing in all forms of advertising, from the radio to stores to street corners to printed ads.[1] What began as a fictive celebrity appearance had become a practice of image exploitation, in which Santa became a symbol not only of the holidays but of holiday marketing.