What Was Christmas Like in 1934, the Year Harry & David Was Founded?

“Hard times create strong men,” novelist G. Michael Hopf famously proclaimed, and that’s undeniably true of the aptly titled “Greatest Generation.” Even before they shouldered the burden of saving humanity from itself in World War II, these courageous Americans came of age enduring the worst financial crisis in our nation’s history.

The stock market crash of 1929 set off a decade-long ripple of financial ruin, an economic apocalypse that resulted in the loss of 90% of its valuation. Businesses failed at an alarming rate, with as many as 300,000 having closed their doors for good in just the first few years. By 1934, the U.S. unemployment rate hovered around 21%, which didn’t even account for Midwestern farmers that were forced to abandon generational property due to unrelenting drought and dust storms. Countless other Americans were underemployed or homeless, as soup kitchens operating around the clock and bread lines stretching for city blocks became daily realities.

Banks shuttered, taking with them their customers’ life savings, or remained open but unsteady, forced to foreclose on homeowners who couldn't make their mortgage payments. It’s no surprise that shantytowns sprang up almost overnight — or that people took to idolizing notorious bank robbers like John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde alongside true heroes like Babe Ruth and Charles Lindbergh.

“The feeling of desperation was acute for people,” says professor Brad Austin, history department chairperson at Salem State University. “Communities and religious groups were forced to support each other because local infrastructures didn’t exist. There were cities that would spend their entire budgets on poor relief by the end of January. These were desperate times.” 

Risky business

Against this bleak backdrop, when the concept of luxury was nearly unthinkable, two ambitious brothers from Medford, Oregon — produce farmers Harry and David Holmes — took an extraordinary risk. They launched a high-end mail-order fruit business that not only succeeded against impossible odds but also established the entire modern gift industry.

It was an outlandish gamble: offering premium fruit to a nation already brimming with street corner apple peddlers. Six thousand were once counted in a single day in New York City. Imagine, too, the audacity of launching such a seemingly out of sync business during the Christmas season, when simply “making do” was all most people could manage.

It’s a not-so-wonderful life

Christmas in 1934 was nothing short of grim, even if Shirley Temple was singing and dancing her heart out to lift America’s spirit, and even if President Franklin D. Roosevelt was promising his New Deal programs would bring much needed relief, recovery, and reform.

The profound lack of income, let alone of the discretionary kind, had an equally profound impact on the simple joy of a Christmas tree, which was generally out of reach for anyone who didn’t live in the country. Like a lot of things, decorations were handcrafted, mostly from paper scraps and other scavenged items. What passed for lavish Christmas feasts were single-course meals of potato and cabbage soup, macaroni and cheese, vegetable and bean chili, creamed chicken on bread or biscuits, or spaghetti with boiled carrots.

Where gift giving was possible, the focus was squarely on practicality: life-sustaining homemade breads, jams, preserves, and fruitcakes, as well as warming hand-knit scarves, gloves, and hats.

READ MORE: How Harry & David Makes Its Fruitcake

And then along came Harry and David, determined to defy the odds. 

A very fruitful business

Armed with their family’s prized Royal Riviera® Pears — a French Comice variety so succulent it was dubbed “butter on a knife” — they set their sights on the ultimate niche clientele: the nation’s dwindling wealthy. These were mostly corporate bigwigs still intent on impressing clients with a touch of extravagance, especially during the holidays when people craved a sense of normalcy. In fact, Harry and David capitalized on this sentiment by cleverly promoting their decadent delicacies as elegant, thoughtful, and very practical.

READ MORE: Holiday Gift Ideas for Employees & Co-Workers

Their very first mail-order catalog hit doorsteps precisely 90 years ago on October 1, 1934 — just in time for Christmas. It was a sight to behold, a perfectly curated experience of indulgence built around those signature pears. A six-pound box sold for the not-so-manageable sum of $2.95 (about $69 in today’s dollars). It also offered tempting “nuts from everywhere,” honey butter priced at a lofty $1.65 a jar (about $38 in today’s dollars), and assortments of specialty cheeses. 

It was a catalog business after all, and the brothers’ innovative logistics and packaging methods ensured their pears arrived on time and in perfect condition. Swaddled in elegant tissue paper and nestled inside protective wooden crates, these pears from Harry & David convincingly pledged, “I care.”

Resilience pays off

Today, Harry and David’s improbable success story serves as a reminder that even in the darkest of times, opportunities arise for those with vision and courage. The brothers were at once a product of their time and ahead of it — their enterprising spirit a lesson in Depression-era resilience and gritty determination.

“It was a remarkable time of resilience,” Austin emphasizes. “The American people faced a global depression but chose optimism and attempted to create a more humane industrial capitalism when other countries were going in different directions. Roosevelt and Hitler came to power at nearly the exact same time but with very different outcomes.”

In their own small corner of the world in Southern Oregon, brothers Harry and David fully understood they weren’t just selling pears, they were selling optimism. A Harry & David crate represented more than just a thoughtful gift. It was a moment of defiant reprieve — an affirmation that life goes on, hope springs eternal, and anything is possible in America.

Harry & David’s most iconic Christmas gifts

Harry & David’s oldest and most iconic Christmas gifts remain a significant part of American holiday traditions, celebrated as much for their premium quality as they are for their uniquely impressive presentations. Here’s a detailed look at their most timeless Christmas offerings. Each a bestseller!