'Twas the Day After Christmas...

A rhyming text poster with four small drawings: a man asleep in bed, soldiers in battle, a traveller with a suitcase at a station and a worker at a lathe. The verse says weapons were 'delayed in production by holiday trips' and ends 'stay at our work - or regret it next year'. The tell for fear-appeal is the pairing of fighting troops with holiday absence plus a single prescribed remedy, with no figures given.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal

Date

1939

Period

Second World War

Made by

Not stated on the item (no imprint visible)

Region

North America

Country

Canada

Medium

Poster

Issuer type

State

Regime

Mackenzie King Government

Leader

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Audience

Domestic public

Purpose

Mobilize or secure compliance

Themes

Labor, Home front, War and the military

Event

World War II

Source

Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure

Source

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026

Rights

Held by NARA, Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
Not stated on the item, National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-710.

'TWAS THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS,
And all through the works
Not a creature was stirring-
Not even the clerks.

But afar in the battle
On land, sea and air,
Brave lads fought through Christmas-
No Santa was there.

The things that they fight with-
The guns, tanks and ships,
Were delayed in production
By holiday trips.

So let us remember
Amid our good cheer,
We must stay at our work-
Or regret it next year.
[sign in drawing:] TRAINS