{"id":11933,"date":"2014-10-11T09:29:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T15:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=11933"},"modified":"2014-10-11T09:37:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T15:37:35","slug":"christmas-giving-are-you-a-spug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/christmas-giving-are-you-a-spug\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Giving: Are you a Spug?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Merry Carey<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Are you a Spug?<\/p>\n

To find out, ask yourself these questions: Do you believe that it is foolish to join in giving Christmas<\/a> presents to those higher up? Do you believe that it is vulgar to give Christmas<\/a> presents only because they are given to you? Do you believe that it is wicked to give Christmas<\/a> presents without love<\/a> and common sense?<\/p>\n

In 1912, if you answered \u201cyes\u201d to these questions, you had what it took to become a Spug. You could get together with four others who shared your beliefs to form a Spug Squad, choose a captain, and write to the Spug headquarters in New York City for membership cards and official Spug pins. As a full-fledged Spug, your mission would be to \u201cmake as many converts as possible,\u201d and \u201cto eliminate by co-operative effort the custom of giving indiscriminately at Christmas<\/a>, and to further in every way the true Christian spirit of unselfish and independent thought, good-will, and sympathetic understanding of the real needs of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpugs\u201d were members of the Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving\u2014the S.P.U.G. According to the club\u2019s president, Mrs. August Belmont, a Spug was \u201ca person who believes in putting soul into a Christmas<\/a> present\u2014not dollars. It is a person who believes in giving only where the heart directs\u2014not where fear, diplomacy or the desire-to-keep-even directs, who refuses to be impoverished just for the sake of keeping up our false Christmas<\/a> habit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Belmont\u2019s inspiration to found the S.P.U.G. grew out of an earlier philanthropic enterprise. In November 1911, she and other society leaders formed a Vacation Savings Fund to allow working girls to put aside a small portion of their weekly pay in a special account. When their summer vacation rolled around, the girls could use their savings to pay for transportation out of the city and two weeks\u2019 board and lodging at a summer boarding house that had been declared safe for single working girls.<\/p>\n

The Vacation Savings Fund members celebrated their first anniversary on November 14, 1912, with a special meeting. At this meeting, the officers of the fund asked the members why more girls did not contribute. The surprising answer was: \u201cChristmas presents.\u201d<\/p>\n

To their shock, the society ladies learned that the working girls were subject to a sort of annual Christmas<\/a> graft. In factories, offices, and department stores, employees were expected to take up collections to buy supervisors, foremen, department heads, and other higher-ups expensive gifts, and also to exchange gifts with fellow employees\u2014regardless of their personal feelings for each other. Those who didn\u2019t wish to participate in the collections and gift exchanges risked being shunned by their co-workers, harassed by their superiors, or even fired. Further inquiry revealed that workers who made as little as $11 a week often felt forced to spend $25 to $30 annually on these obligatory gifts, usually receiving in exchange only a useless knickknack or a cheap bottle of perfume. As a result, these girls, responsible for supporting themselves and sometimes their families, often found themselves unable to purchase gifts for their loved ones, or even to buy necessities for themselves.<\/p>\n

The solution, Mrs. Belmont suggested, was strength in numbers. If the girls belonged to an organization based on the credo that Christmas<\/a> giving should come only from the heart, never from coercion, they could answer gift-collection demands by politely and firmly stating, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I can\u2019t\u2014I\u2019m a Spug. I don\u2019t believe in giving useless Christmas<\/a> gifts.\u201d On this basis the S.P.U.G. was quickly formed; about 50 members joined that first evening.<\/p>\n

The New York Times reported on this extraordinary meeting the following day, and the press\u2019s interest in the Spugs was off and running. Some reporters were in sympathy with the club\u2019s aims, while others wrote tongue-in-cheek articles that implied that the club was a frivolous gathering of overgrown schoolgirls. But the general public loved the idea\u2014by the middle of December, the original 50 members had swelled to over 2,000 as Spug Squads formed all across the country.<\/p>\n

At the time, many people customarily tried to ingratiate themselves with those who were socially and financially superior by sending them expensive Christmas<\/a> gifts, hoping to receive favors or expensive gifts in return\u2014the 1912 version of keeping up with the Joneses or brown-nosing society leaders. And even 98 years ago there was the dilemma of whether to send gifts to those who had sent you gifts before, merely to avoid the embarrassment of receiving a gift without sending one. Many of these gifts consisted of expensive but useless \u201cgimcracks\u201d with no sentimental value that were tossed into the closet by their recipients. The public saw the Spugs as a possible solution to these problems: \u201cI didn\u2019t send you a gift this year because I\u2019m a Spug and don\u2019t believe in useless presents. But I send you my warmest Christmas<\/a> wishes nevertheless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some misunderstood the Spugs as approving of only utilitarian gifts. In reality, the \u201cUseless\u201d in the society\u2019s name referred to the nature of the giving, not the gift itself. To a Spug, giving a tchotchke to a dear friend was just as acceptable as giving, say, a pocket handkerchief, so long as it was given with the sincere intent to make the recipient happy. On the other hand, Spugs considered it useful Christmas<\/a> giving, rather than charity, to give household goods, new clothing, or other useful items to a friend who was less fortunate.<\/p>\n

At first only women were allowed to be members, but the gender barrier fell in December 1912 when President Theodore Roosevelt asked to become a Spug. Now anyone was allowed to form a Spug Squad, send their annual dues of 10 cents to the S.P.U.G. headquarters at 105 West Fortieth Street in New York City, and receive their membership card and a handsome celluloid pin: the word SPUG surrounded by a wreath of holly. Members promised to wear their pins prominently throughout the Christmas<\/a> season, spreading the mission of the Spugs and recruiting new members.<\/p>\n

\"spugpatent\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inevitably, the commercial<\/a> sector found a way to use this rebellion against commercialism to its own advantage. As Christmas<\/a> Day approached, shops and stores ran newspaper ads touting their practical, useful goods that were sure to find favor as gifts, even by Spugs.<\/p>\n

The Spug movement continued strong in the 1913 Christmas<\/a> season, when the S.P.U.G. updated its name to the Society for the Promotion of Useful Giving. But by the mid-1920s, the Spugs were fading into a quaint memory of the innocent 19-teens. By the time the Great Depression fell upon the United States, the Spugs had ceased to be.<\/p>\n

But the Spug spirit remains strong anytime anyone laments the commercialism of today\u2019s Christmas<\/a>, or the insincerity of solely dutiful giving. A quote from Mrs. Belmont is as timely today as in 1912, when she said: \u201cWe no longer spell Christmas<\/a> with an L for Love<\/a>; we spell it now with a D for Dollars. We are commercializing the most beautiful thing in all the world\u2014giving\u2014and so I ask every man and woman in the whole United States to start working at once to redeem our Yuletide\u2014to help make it mean once more what once it meant: just \u2018peace on earth and good will towards men.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So\u2014are you a Spug?<\/p>\n

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n

\u201cMerry Xmas\u201d<\/p>\n

Xmas isn\u2019t costly gifts,
\nBut loving friendly hearts;
\nGet four girls to think so,
\nAnd a Spug Squad starts.<\/p>\n

Xmas isn\u2019t cashing checks,
\nBut mistletoe and holly;
\nPick your Captain, buy your pins
\nAnd join the Spugs so jolly.<\/p>\n

Xmas wasn\u2019t meant for bribes
\nTo those who stand above you!
\nSign the Spug card\u2014then you\u2019re free
\nTo give to those who love<\/a> you.<\/p>\n

Xmas makes too many cowards,
\nSo come on, Spugs, be sporty!
\nSend your name and join the crowd
\nAt One-o-five West Forty.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014Josephine Daskam Bacon (one of the Spug founders), 1912<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Merry Carey Are you a Spug? To find out, ask yourself these questions: Do you believe that it is foolish to join in giving Christmas presents to those higher up? Do you believe that it is vulgar to give Christmas presents only because they are given to you? Do you believe that it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":44,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,36,3,5],"tags":[126],"class_list":["post-11933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-features","category-christmas-history","category-christmas-past","category-christmas-traditions","tag-spug"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}