Hallmark Holidays
Leslie Kennedy
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February 14th, 2022
Hallmark Holidays
Valentine’s Day is a day to tell loved ones they are loved or, for many, to lament loves lost or never had. No matter your state of romantic affiliation, chances are you’ll agree that February 14th is considered a ‘Hallmark holiday.’ Hallmark holidays are those fun days on the calendar that people feel were created by companies, like card and gift giant Hallmark, looking to sell their wares. What does that really mean though? Did Hallmark really create Valentine’s Day?
Here are five examples of how marketers have had a significant influence on how we celebrate events in the 21st century.
Valentine’s Day
When you hear the term ‘Hallmark holiday,’ chances are Valentine’s Day is the first holiday you think of. The ‘international day of love’ can be traced back to ancient Rome, when Emperor Claudius II executed two men, both named Valentine. The Catholic Church later honoured them as martyrs with the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.
Fast forward to 1375, when renowned poet Chaucer wrote “Parliament of Foules,” the first known reference of Valentine’s Day as a day for romance and love.
For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate
A few hundred years after that, in the 1700s, Americans began exchanging Valentine’s Day greetings through letters and handwritten notes. By the early 1900s, pre-printed cards became the customary way to wish loved ones a Happy Valentine’s Day. Coincidentally (or not), this was right around the time Hallmark was founded.
Today, the marketing of the holiday, and the expansion to be a gift giving, rather than a card exchanging holiday, is mainly due to the marketing of candy and chocolate companies and florists. Blaming Hallmark for Valentine’s Day is like blaming Yoko for breaking up the Beatles. Ultimately, it’s not their fault.
St. Patrick's Day
It may surprise you, or it may not, but if you are in Ireland on March 17th, you’ll notice the Irish honour the day a bit differently than we do in North America. In Dublin, the streets will be packed for the parade returning to Dublin’s city centre this year after a long hiatus. Outside Dublin however, you’ll find the locals making themselves scarce from the crowds, celebrating St. Patrick in a lower key fashion.
St. Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. As such, the day honouring him was originally celebrated in Ireland with religious services and feasts in honour of the patron saint. When a large group of Irish immigrants made their way to the U.S., the day evolved into the more secular version of the Irish cultural celebration we know today.
Given that it’s a day of religious origin, you might question why beer is intricately linked to St. Patrick’s Day. Was it Guinness’s genius marketing? Nope.
If you look at your calendar, you’ll notice that St. Patrick’s Day falls smack dab in the middle of lent. What that meant for Irish Catholics was a break from the period of restraint for a single day, to honour St. Patrick. Thus, food and beer flowed freely, forever linking the day with libation and over-indulgence.
Today, St. Patrick’s Day is the highest grossing day of the year for U.S. bars and restaurants, with beer sales spiking 174%, and spirits sales up 153% more than usual on March 17th. That’s a lot of cheer.
Mother's Day
Three years before Hallmark went into business, Anna Jarvis decided mothers deserved a day of honour. The day was meant to memorialize her own mother who had organized women’s groups to promote health and friendship. In 1907, Jarvis held a memorial service in West Virginia to honour her beloved late mother – the first ever Mother’s Day. Within five years, almost every state observed Mother’s Day. President Woodrow Wilson made it official in 1914.
Anna Jarvis never intended for Mother’s Day to become a gift giving occasion. As sending cards and giving gifts became a custom, Jarvis actually sought to get rid of the holiday, entirely. By that point, the commercialization of Mother’s Day had too strong a hold and it continues to be one of the most popular gift-giving holidays on the calendar, when roses on any other day would cost half as much.
Father's Day
It didn’t take long after Mother’s Day became official that talk started about honouring dads as well. In 1910, the very first Father’s Day was celebrated in the state of Washington. President Wilson didn’t give it his blessing in the same way he did Mother’s Day, however, and it was 58 years after Mother’s Day became official that Father’s Day showed up on calendars in the United Sates.
There was talk of making a single day for parents, back in the 1920s. When the Great Depression hit, retailers and advertisers were all ‘no! buy these ties, these socks, these golf clubs, how about these pipes? Come and get ‘em for the dad in your life.’ And so, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day remained separate. In the wake of the second world war, advertisers upped the ante and suggested that Father’s Day was a way to honour the troops. While Father’s Day was never official proclaimed official, it’s been celebrated on the 3rd weekend in June ever since.
Santa Claus
We know Christmas isn’t a Hallmark holiday, but Santa Claus? Well, he’s not in the bible. Th commercialization of Christmas is nothing new, but the father of gift giving, who we know and love today, is a gift to us from Coca-Cola.
The first image of Santa Claus appeared in an 1823 poem written by Clement Clarke Moore. Fifty years later, Macy’s started decorating their store windows, creating tableaus of Christmas scenes with gifts abound. It was another 60 years before Coca-Cola, seeking to increase sales over their notoriously slow winter months, dressed Moore’s Santa Claus in red for its Christmas advertising. From then on, the warm and colourful image of Santa began adorning Coca-Cola’s label at Christmastime, with jolly Saint Nick holding a bottle of Coke – his refreshing reward for a job well done.
It’s a long-standing myth that Coke owns trademark rights to Santa Claus. Though they created some of his defining features – the jolly chub and red uniform – the company did not create the idea of Santa and has no trademark rights to his likeness. It’s hard to know the long-term financial impact the campaign had on Coke’s success. But one thing is for certain – the vision of Santa enjoying a Coca-Cola linked the two in history and changed forever how we picture the man in red.
As marketers, we take stock of society shifting around us and seek ways to enhance your experience. Hallmark didn’t invent Valentine’s Day, or any other holiday for that matter. What Hallmark did, as did candy, drink and flower companies, was make the event a celebration. We love ‘Hallmark holidays.’ Without them, the calendar year would include a lot less to celebrate.
