World War II Holiday Humor: Office of War Information “Santa” Memo

World War II Holiday Humor: Office of War Information “Santa” Memo

Someone in the Office of War Information (OWI) News Bureau was having a jolly old time writing this memorandum on Christmas Eve 1942. It concerns rumors flying around (by way of a reindeer-led sled) about a “man in whiskers who…will come down many chimneys bringing gifts to hundreds of American homes.” This tongue-in-cheek report from the OWI News Bureau was composed by staff to poke fun at their own bureaucracy. However, even the report’s light-hearted analysis of the “facts” about Santa Claus reveals serious concerns faced by the United States during World War II.

In commemoration, the “Santa” Memo was is display in the “Featured Documents” exhibit in the East Rotunda Gallery of the National Archives in Washington, DC from November 30, 2017 – January 10, 2018

Past Featured Records

• 

  Frances Perkins: Champion of Workers’ Rights

  Thursday, February 29, 2024 – Monday, April 15, 2024
  East Rotunda Gallery

  “I came to Washington to work for God, FDR, and the millions of forgotten plain common workingmen.” —Frances Perkins

  Chances are you benefit from the legacy of Frances Perkins,... Read more

• 

  70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

  Thursday, February 1, 2024 – Wednesday, February 28, 2024
  East Rotunda Gallery

  Equity in Education: 70 Years Later

  On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that “separate but equal” was unconstitutional in... Read more

• 

  250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party

  Thursday, December 14, 2023 – Wednesday, January 31, 2024

  East Rotunda Gallery

  The Destruction of the Tea

  It wouldn’t be known as the “Boston Tea Party” for another 50 years, but the destruction... Read more

• 

  Diseños: An Impact of Mexican Cession

  Tuesday, June 20, 2023 – Wednesday, October 18, 2023
  East Rotunda Gallery

   

  At the end of the Mexican-American War, the United States annexed more than half of Mexico’s territory under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Under its terms, the U.S. promised to... Read more

• 

  Celebrating Anna May Wong

  Anna May Wong
  National Archives, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service

  “I want to be an actress, not a freak.”

  Film legend Anna May Wong’s talent could not be contained by the racist casting of early Hollywood movies. Born Wong Liu Tsong in Los Angeles in 1905,... Read more