Cars-for-Christmas ads have been with us for decades

1941 Packard

(December 25, 2015) Lexus has been using its "December to Remember" sales event for years, offering its own spin on gift giving by putting a new Lexus in the driveway on Christmas morning. The elaborate television ads usually show a well-to-do couple or a rather privileged family emerging from their million dollar house to find a new $50,000 Lexus with a huge red bow on the roof even as most of us common folks look on with a mix of emotions from total dislike to envy.

Other manufacturers have caught on to the sales gimmick in recent years as well including Cadillac and Audi.

But you may be surprised to learn that this is not a new phenomenon. Cars-for-Christmas sales campaigns have been used almost since the advent of the horseless carriage. For instance, Packard ran Christmas car ads before World War II. Cadillac proclaimed "The Christmas They'll Never Forget" in the early '50s as the wife holds a set of car keys under the Christmas tree.

Below is an example of pushing a new car for Christmas from December 1957. Chevrolet's voice of the 1950s, Dinah Shore, lists the attributes of the all-new 1958 Chevrolet.

Merry Christmas from the staff of Abandoned Cars and Trucks.