100 years ago: Cost of ingredients for holiday feasts staying steady this year

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Nov. 25, 1912:

  • “Your Thanksgiving dinner will be a little cheaper this year than last, although it may require a microscope to find the difference. Some of the dainties for the Thanksgiving dinner will be slightly lower in price, while nothing will be higher than last year. The turkey, the center decoration for the table, will cost about twenty-five cents a pound. Geese will be 15 cents a pound and ducks 20 cents. Pumpkins for pies are very plentiful and will sell for 15 and 20 cents. If the housewife prefers to buy her mince meat rather than make it she can get it for 20 cents a pound. Cranberries are 10 cents a pound and oysters, best grade, 60 cents a quart, soup oysters 50 cents.”
  • “Saturday was the biggest day that the city of Lawrence has ever seen and yet this city has occasion for patting itself on the back and congratulating itself for the manner in which it handled that monster crowd, made them feel at home and sent them back to their respective abodes with a kindly feeling toward Lawrence, Kan., the town where the twenty-second annual Kansas Missouri game was played in 1912. The town was beautifully decorated in the colors of the rival elevens, there was plenty to eat, and everywhere the air of hospitality prevailed…. It was the biggest crowd that has ever gathered in Lawrence, but the city demonstrated its ability to handle it and although Lawrence was tired by night the city went to bed conscious of having made a great success in the role of host.”
  • “This morning when the students went up the Hill to their first hour classes they found signs posted everywhere announcing that there would be no classes for a day. Some of the students left to begin their Thanksgiving vacation a little early. However, most of the students are waiting until Wednesday noon when the official holiday begins.”