ABSTRACT
This tendency for aspects of consumer life to become part of life histories has turned out to be a vital resource in an ongoing research project on consumer culture in twentieth-century Sweden. The focus is on consumption, as everyday routine and an arena for day-dreaming, as well as an ideological battlefield. The use of life histories has a long and strong tradition in the discipline of European ethnology, especially in the Scandinavian countries, with vast collections in the archives linked to university departments or museums. When people narrate their lives as consumers there is often a focus on processes of learning and unlearning certain consumer skills. The interviews often start with the early memories of learning how to construct a list of Christmas wishes, becoming a collector of Barbie dolls or Smurf figures, or negotiating pocket money. The working-class memory of threadbare Christmases is a composite one.
