Remembering Girl Scout Holiday Catalogs

Thanks to our Girl Scout Historians, we’ve been able to take a look back at some incredible Girl Scout moments of the past in our blog! This month, we’re celebrating the holidays and learning about the Girl Scout Wish Books from the 1920s (and some awesome Girl Scout gifts from today!).

Did you know the Girl Scouts had a Wish Book before the famous Sears Wish Book? Beginning in 1934, Sears mailed out an annual holiday catalog filled with toys, games, sports equipment such as bicycles and sleds and almost anything a child might hope to see under the tree on Christmas.

But the Girl Scouts issued their first Christmas catalog entitled “Christmas Gifts for Girl Scouts and Their Friends” in 1926! There was nothing particularly holiday-oriented inside, but the catalog included everything from dolls and records to head scarves and camp equipment.

Lifelong Girl Scout and Historian Rosemarie Courtney remembers wanting an official Girl Scout First Aid kit that was in the 1951 catalog and her sister wanting the autograph hound that was in the 1958 catalog. She quips, “we must have been good because Santa brought us both what we wanted.”

By the 1970s these catalogs mostly disappeared, but gift catalogs reappeared sporadically in the 2000s and were more inclusively titled, “Gifts” and featured winter items like hats and scarves, snowman and snowflake designed presents!