By Peter F. Stevens

A blizzard of ads proclaiming an abundance of Christmas wares, streets teeming with overloaded shoppers, church notices outlining Yuletide services &emdash; these scenes encompass Christmas in Dorchester, past and present. Today, even a passing glance at the town's turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century newspaper, the now-defunct Dorchester Beacon reflect the old adage that "the more things change, the more they stay the same," especially when it comes to Christmas.

"Christmas Is Near," an ad in the Beacon from Mrs. M.A. Whitmarch & Company, a stationery and novelties shop perched on Geneva Avenue, reminded prospective customers on December 15, 1900. Locals streamed into the store to pick up everything from such holiday essentials as Christmas cards to "the famous Palmer Perfume" &emdash; a period version of Boucheron, Fendi, and other fragrances of 2000 &emdash; favored by many a man for that special woman.

For "on-the-fence" customers who needed to make a call to someone about a prospective purchase, Whitmarch & Company offered the latest in modern convenience: "Public Telephone and Postal Telegraph Connections."

Vying not only for the fragrance trade but also the "Christmas Candies" buyers among Dorchester's holiday shoppers in 1900 was Jaynes & Co., whose "Manufacturing and Retail Druggist" stores offered savings of "25 to 33% on your Christmas goods." The mini-chain's ads boasted: "Look in the Window of Any of Our Stores and See the Finest Display of Christmas Perfumes and Candles in New England."

At "3 Stores Only &emdash; 50 Washington, cor. Hanover St., 143 Summer, cor. South St., 877 Washington, opp. Oak St. &emdash; Jaynes & Co. offered an array of "Selected Perfumes, Violet Water, Lavendar Water, and Cologne." For their husbands, wives who did not mind clouds of tobacco smoke in the house could purchase "Christmas Cigars &emdash; 25 in a Box &emdash; of Jaynes's Perfectos" at $1.75 a box to high-end "Jaynes's Clear Havana, large size," at a pricey $3.75 a box. One can only speculate as to whether a whiff of "Jaynes's Garden Bouquet Cigars" ($1.40) offered truth in advertising.

Doubtlessly catching the attention of Dorchester children, Jaynes's Christmas Candies were advertised as "unexcelled in quality." Clerks wrapped the sweets in "unique boxes for Christmas trade" at no extra charge, a proverbial tip of the commercial hat to holiday shoppers.

Jaynes's Stores, in their Christmas ads, also suggested "Hot Water Bottles and Military Brushes" as "holiday notions." Practical, perhaps, but one can envision the stony stares that might have greeted such a "thoughtful" gift on Christmas Day.

The Christmas season of 1900 found many people heading to 1404 Dorchester Avenue- the address of the present-day Autozone store- where John J. Hagerty & Company once offered a broad range of "Imported Wines and Liquors" for holiday tables. Many of Hagerty's selections would stand the test of time: he sold Bass Ale and Guinness "in Quarts and Pints." If the season's shoppers were truly pressed for time, they could simply call Hagerty's at "238-2 Dorchester" to arrange a delivery in time for Christmas parties.

At the corner of Bowdoin and Hamilton Streets, the Meeting House Hill Dry Goods Store &emdash; yes, that concern also offered "Perfumery" &emdash; ran a mid-December ad with the capitalized, bold-black ink headline "CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS!" urging or perhaps "warning" Dorchester's residents that the holiday was fast bearing down upon them. "By making an early choice," the notice advised, "the purchaser secures the best selection, and, avoiding the crowd of Christmas week, has greater comfort in examining our goods." Those goods included "Holiday Stock of Dolls, Books, Bric-a-brac, Fancy Jewelry, Perfumery, Handkerchiefs, Umbrellas, and a full line of Christmas Novelties."

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF?" The almost jarring Yuletide headline blared visually from the Dorchester Beacon as brashly &emdash; perhaps annoyingly, to many &emdash; as would obnoxious Christmas sales pitches from TV screens of the year 2000. Which turn-of-the-century Dorchester retailer was responsible for or guilty of that headline? Even now, the retailer's name seems somehow fitting &emdash; the Mammoth Blue Store.

Soaring five stories at 2260 Washington Street and the corner of Warren, Frank Ferdinand's Mammoth Blue Store "catered" to holiday shoppers with a "good and useful present in mind." That present? Furniture, of course.

Throughout the weeks leading up to Christmas 1900, the sprawling furniture emporium's ads exhorted shoppers to buy "a present to make home a little more pleasant." Frank Ferdinand asked, "Why not a fancy rocker, a dresser, a brass bed, a parlor set, or an Oriental rug" under the tree?

No one could doubt that he had a dizzying array of Christmas inventory: "Why, the floor space we occupy for just our Fancy Rockers and Chairs is as large as most of the Furniture Stores, and our desks about the same. Large show rooms, large stock, large assortment, making it very easy to select what you want."

While the seasonal hype of the Mammoth Blue Store and other local retailers seems familiar a hundred years later, so, too, will another sign of a Dorchester Christmas 1900 &emdash; and thankfully so. The town's churches "celebrated the Great Festival" with Christmas Sunday services replete with "special music...Christmas concerts and trees for the children."

Among the offerings was the program of St. Anne's Catholic Church, in Neponset, which at the tun of the last century included an "e" in its name. Father T.J. Murphy commenced a "Solemn High Mass at 10:30 a.m.," every pew packed with parishioners in their "Christmas best." A chorus of thirty, accompanied by "Mr. P.J. Malley, organist," filled the church with majestic classical arrangements featuring soloist tenor Thomas Horan.

As a look back at St. Anne's dignified yet joyous Christmas 1900 celebration and a look forward to Christmas 2000 prove, the holiday, its festive and commercial trappings notwithstanding, remains a day when family and faith are the true meaning of the season.

(Journalist Peter F. Stevens is the author of The Rogue's March: John Riley and the St. Patrick's Battalion, 1846-48, Brassey's, and Notorious and Notable New Englanders, Down East Books.)

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