Spectators of Christmas Past

One December in the 1930s, with Britain reeling from the Depression, Lord Wakefield of Wakefield House took out a full-page announcement on the cover of The Spectator. It was an appeal to ‘all men and women of goodwill’ to help 3,693 boys and girls in the National Children’s Home and Orphanage.  ‘For many of them it will be their first Christmas without their fathers and mothers,’ wrote Lord Wakefield. ‘Five hundred guineas would meet the costs of Christmas Day for the entire orphanage.’
 
That was our Christmas cover of 1933, and it’s just one of the Spectators of Christmas Past that we’re featuring on our new Facebook page this week, which you can view here. So far, we’ve delved into our Christmas issues of 1886  (where the news begins with ‘The Government has suddenly collapsed…’), 1933, 1959 and 1972. And we’ll continue to bring you one historical cover a day until our new Christmas Double Issue comes out later this week.