The Sears Wish Book

Name:

Date:

Instructions: Remember thumbing through the thick Christmas catalog circling everything you wanted? Test your memory of the great mail-order catalogs that brought the store right to your door.

1.
What was the popular nickname children used for the Sears Christmas catalog that arrived each fall?
A
The Dream Book
B
The Wish Book
C
The Holiday Catalog
D
The Gift Guide
2.
In what decade did Sears publish its very first mail-order catalog?
A
1870s
B
1880s
C
1890s
D
1900s
3.
Which company was Sears' biggest rival in the mail-order catalog business for most of the 20th century?
A
Spiegel
B
J.C. Penney
C
Montgomery Ward
D
Woolworth
4.
What beloved children's Christmas character was actually created by Montgomery Ward in 1939 as a giveaway booklet?
A
Frosty the Snowman
B
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
C
Hermey the Elf
D
Jack Frost
5.
How thick could a typical Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog get at its peak popularity in the 1960s and 1970s?
A
About 100 pages
B
About 200 pages
C
About 400 pages
D
Over 600 pages
6.
What was the name of the ordering method most families used before telephone and internet orders became common?
A
Phone-in order
B
Mail-in order form
C
Telegram order
D
Store pickup slip
7.
Sears once famously sold entire houses through its catalog. What were these catalog homes called?
A
Sears Ready-Built Homes
B
Sears Honor Bilt Homes
C
Sears Modern Homes
D
Sears Kit Cottages
8.
Which section of the Wish Book did most children head to first?
A
The appliance pages
B
The toy section
C
The clothing pages
D
The sporting goods pages
9.
Sears catalog customers in the early 1900s could buy which of these surprising items through the mail?
A
A complete automobile
B
A ready-to-assemble house kit
C
A live farm animal
D
A working telephone system
10.
What year did Sears publish its final traditional Christmas Wish Book before discontinuing the big catalog?
A
1989
B
1993
C
1997
D
2001
11.
The Spiegel catalog, another beloved mail-order book, was based in which American city?
A
New York City
B
Cincinnati
C
Chicago
D
Detroit
12.
What did families in rural areas particularly value about shopping through the Sears catalog in the early 1900s?
A
Faster delivery than city stores
B
Access to goods they had no local store to buy
C
Lower prices than any department store
D
The ability to return items easily
13.
Which wildly popular 1970s toy brand filled many Wish Book pages with dolls, playsets, and accessories for girls?
A
Kenner
B
Mattel
C
Hasbro
D
Fisher-Price
14.
What nickname did shoppers give the giant twice-yearly Sears general merchandise catalog?
A
The Big Book
B
The Sears Annual
C
The Master Catalog
D
The Grand Index
15.
What tradition did many children practice when the Wish Book arrived each fall, to communicate their holiday wishes to parents?
A
Writing a letter to copy the page numbers
B
Circling or dog-earing the pages of wanted items
C
Cutting out pictures to make a collage
D
Memorizing item numbers to recite to Santa

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