It’s that time of year again. The battle of the Christmas adverts has begun.

Like it or loathe it, there’s no getting away from the headline buzz as retail giants unveil their epic Christmas adverts.

Although the saccharine messages and Hollywood-esque budgets that go into making festive adverts these days is new, pre-Christmas marketing has been around for many decades of course, as these vintage newspaper ads show.

To celebrate the start of shopping season we’ve dug out some old Christmas adverts from the twenties, thirties and forties.

They all appeared in the Southend and County Pictorial, Southend Standard or Essex and Grays Gazette newspapers.

Among the ads are for Ravens department store – which was Southend’s oldest surviving department store when it closed in 2017.

One advert from 1928 is promoting “acceptable Xmas Gifts” at Raven’s. department. Gift suggestions for ladies include handkerchiefs in boxes, silk stockings, fancy garters and fur trimmed coats. Men’s suggestions include braces and socks, tie presses and winter overcoats.

Another big seller from this year at Raven’s was fancy wool motor rugs.

Meanwhile Brightwell’s department store in Southend, was advertising a variety of festive gifts back in 1939. The business had been started in the 19th century by John Rumbelow Brightwell (twice alderman of Southend) in Southend High Street as a drapery. It later became a department store.

Everything from silk and satin nightdresses, quilts, gloves and handbags were up or grabs for shoppers in December 1939.

Despite the merriment of the season if you look closely at the advert you’ll see a real sign of the times. The country was just a few months into the Second World War and the advert flags up the fact the store had five entrances to the air raid shelter in the basement!

Another advert from 1948 was hoping to entice residents to buy their own TV set in time for Christmas.

Back in 1948 only 100,000 people in the entire country owned a TV set and the choice of programmes was limited. Still, if you had splashed out and bought a set at this time you’d have been in time to watch two films over the Christmas period- Tumbledown Ranch in Arizona which was shown on Christmas Eve and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass which aired at 8.30pm on Christmas Day 1948.

Check out our vintage Christmas advert gallery here.