Many newspaper articles and advertisements count down the number of “shopping days until/‘til/till Christmas/Xmas.” The “shopping days till Christmas” ads date to at least December 1890 in the Baltimore (MD) Sun.
There are now Christmas countdown clocks on the Internet to show how many days, hours, minutes and seconds of shopping days are left.
19 December 1890, Baltimore (MD) Sun, pg. 2 ad:
There are only 5 more shopping days till Christmas.
19 December 1893, St. Louis (MO) Republic, pg. 4, col. 5 ad:
ONLY 5 MORE SHOPPING DAYS
Until Christmas, and it is morally certain that if you do not shop in the mornings you cannot get in sideways.
(Famous—ed.)
2 December 1896, Portsmouth (OH) Daily Times, pg. 5, col. 4 ad:
Only Twenty Shopping Days Until Christmas.
(Wingard Bros.—ed.)
20 December 1896, Birmingham (AL) State Herald, pt. 2, pg. 9 ad:
Only four more shopping days until Christmas. Don’t wait to the last minute. Come early. Avoid the jam.
Loveman, Joseph & Loeb.
11 December 1898, Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, AR), pg. 8 ad:
Only Twelve More Shopping Days till Christmas.
(Joe P. Quinn Dry Goods Co.—ed.)
7 December 1905, Baltimore (MD) Sun, pg. 6 ad:
ONLY 15 SHOPPING DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS
Google News Archive
11 December 1907, Youngstown (OH) Vindicator, pg. 2, col. 1 ad:
11 More Shopping Days till Christmas
(The Fordyce-Osborne Company—ed.)
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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