For people who have spent the holidays in the U.S. watching any television, it?s a scene that could be drawn from memory: A smiling family wakes up on a snowy morning and walks outside to a winter wonderland to find a glistening new car wrapped in a giant red bow. Cue the voiceover and on-screen text announcing a few details of a holiday sales event.

As ubiquitous as these images and sounds are, it may be hard for many to imagine giving a new car as a present ? especially as a holiday surprise. Is the idea of a new car as a holiday or gift an actual thing real people do" Or, is it simply a marketing fantasy"

The answer is probably a little of both.

The Car-as-Christmas-Gift Is a Relatively Recent Concept

Television ads featuring a brand new car with a big red bow may now seem like a staple of the holiday season. The advertising formula has become burned into the collective conscience of American culture ? so much so that it has even been the subject of parody, as in a Saturday Night Live sketch from 2020.
But as embedded as the idea and the images associated with it have become, the concept?s roots only date back about 20 years. Luxury automaker Lexus is credited with introducing the idea in its current form in 1999, when it debuted its first ever ?December to Remember? promotions.

According to the company, the campaign was a roaring success. As reported by Minnesota Public Radio?s Marketplace, Lexus said that in 1998, the year before it de...