Christmas Parties for Horses

Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, humane societies around the country would host Christmas parties for horses in order to help urban residents connect with workhorses who served their communities and to bring attention to the sometimes harsh conditions that horses endured.

These horse parties took place across the country in cities such as Detroit, Kansas City, Baltimore, Boston, and Washington D.C. and they remained popular until work horses began to be replaced more and more by automobiles.

Like any good party, there was plenty of food: barrels of apples, bushels of oats, carrots, and plenty of sugar cubes. And there was ample opportunity for mingling between party guests in order to get to know each other better. One Boston journalist wrote in 1919, “It is surprising what a unifying effect such a thing as the tree for horses has on men and women of all stations in life. It is safe to venture that every [person] who snatched a few moments out of a busy day, to go down and take a share in seeing that the dumb animals were given added comfort, went home with a bit of extra warmth about the heart.”

These parties served to build connections between people and the horses whose labor helped to build up urban areas. They also helped to pave the way for future changes in societal thinking and eventual animal cruelty laws.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was founded in 1866 after founder Henry Bergh stopped a carriage driver from beating his horse who had fallen. Fifty years later, local humane societies found a way to bring the core beliefs and goals of their organizations to the public’s attention by way of a little holiday cheer.

Check out the pictures below of these festive parties that took place more than a hundred years ago courtesy of the Library of Congress. Happy 12 Days of Blogmas Day 8!