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- Title
All I Want for Christmas: An Analysis of Children's Brand Requests to Santa Claus.
- Authors
Otnes, Cele; Young Chan Kim; Kyungseung Kim
- Abstract
This article presents a study which aimed to determine the varying levels of brand requests in children's letters to Santa Claus. Logically, it can be assumed that children who specify more than one brand exhibit an understanding that there are many brands available in the marketplace. As of March 1994, only three studies have examined the content of children's letters to Santa Claus. The first of these explored how children's gift requests varied with social class. The authors found that middle-class children tended to request items that they could use by themselves, whereas upper-class children asked for more competition games, toys, clothing and sports items. Furthermore, middle-class children requested more gifts from Santa Claus, while upper-class children asked their parents directly for gifts. Two studies have examined whether the gifts that children requested from Santa Claus were gender-specific. The authors found that while boys and girls requested the same number of gifts, girls requested significantly more domestic objects and dolls, while boys requested military items and vehicles. While these findings are certainly interesting, children's letters to Santa Claus can also be used to expand understanding of issues relating to children's understanding of material goods.
- Subjects
CHILDREN; SANTA Claus; BUSINESS names; LETTERS; GIFTS; SOCIAL classes
- Publication
Journal of Popular Culture, 1994, Vol 27, Issue 4, p183
- ISSN
1540-5931
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.0022-3840.1994.2704_183.x