Some of my favorite family photos are pictures of my parents and grandparents celebrating Christmas in the 1960's. The aluminum trees, the tinsel, the glass ball and homemade ornaments, many of which we still have today...
...bring about a great sense of nostalgia and for me, an admiration of the classic 1960's Christmas. I asked both of my parents to share some of their favorite memories from Christmas during those years.
Mom: "Waiting for the Sears catalogue to arrive, then picking out our presents from it. French Onion dip, which was only made for the holidays and Chex mix. Macramé handmade, homemade presents. Specifically macramé candleholders that hang from a hook in the ceiling for our mom. My sister wanted a Chatty Cathy and all the boys wanted BB guns. Wearing pink foam curlers to bed the night before, which were extremely uncomfortable, because we would be taking pictures on Christmas day. Getting out the camera with the separate flashbulb that actually made a popping sound."
Dad: "The Christmas tree decorated with colored glass balls and tinsel. Except for a few homemade ornaments there were no figurines, Disney characters or similar items. Other glass ornaments with fancy shapes or decoration were extra special. 'Classic' creche with ceramic figures and cardboard stable like the one we still have from my mom. Again, nothing modern or unusual. Big colored bulbs on the house -- no icicle or white mini lights. It may have been more economic than style related but we had few Christmas decorations: stockings (homemade from felt) tree, creche, maybe one or two others at most. Nothing like the whole house decoration of modern times. Colored construction paper garlands. Making wreaths with IBM punch cards used in computer programming. We really did string popcorm and cranberries."
Images: Used with permission from the Hunt Huey family.
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These are great! Love the chairs in 3rd picture!
Makes me feel old that you're talking about your parents. Those are my memories, too.
I wish we could still find Christmas trees like that -- Christmas trees that aren't on "steroids"...
Looking at these made us realize how we have gotten used to seeing perfectly shaped trees--these in the pictures are so lop-sided and out of shape, which gave them a charm all their own. I wish I still had those Barbie dolls with the bouffant hair--and that my husband had kept those mid century chairs . . . .
oh my god. those CHAIRS
Those girls could be my sisters, with their matching nightgowns and matching christmas gifts. I love how everything is so modest, not an explosion of perfection and excess.
I have those chairs AND the angel chimes! That picture looks magical.
Oh man.....AND the same nativity set on the tv. This is getting a little weird. In the best possible way.
I'm with you, Texaninexile! That might be me in picture 1!
I think I have repressed a lot of that era! Now that it has been brought up, I do recall the French onion dip thing (only for holidays and special events), the "big bulbs" and bubble lights for the tree (minis weren't around yet), and all those icicles (which I quit using years ago since they distract from my huge ornament collection). We dressed up on the holiday and got maybe 5 presents, not more. Only the tree, no other decorations except, some years, stockings. (Have you ever noticed we still call them "stockings" for Christmas, never sox?!) The whole enormous cosumerism thing hadn't started then.
A friend of mine used to get a fir tree, string only blue "big bulb" lights, and meticulously cover the top of every branch with cotton batting cut into strips to resemble snow. It took hours, but it was a stunning look! (Maybe with a two footer it would be sane!)
I hope those great chairs are still in the family. Love them!
Texaninexile, me, too.
Radioriot--can you tell me what those chairs actually are? They were in my husband's family--not mine--and we no longer have them, although I do have all my parent's Danish Modern Teak furniture that you can kind of see in the background
Those are Hans Wegner Folding Rope Chairs. Very, VERY, cool!
This post is making me all nostalgic... I was a little kid in the '70s, and yeah, it was a lot more fun without all the consumerism and pressure to try out Martha-isms... Some days, I wish we could roll back the clock...
I remember that wood paneling! :)
oh, LOVE those little girls holding up their purses! I was born in 1972 but I was the 5th kid and my parents were married in 1962 so all of our Christmas stuff was pure 60s. Those giant C7 colored light strings! I love them.
One year my baby sister pulled the tree over and smashed lots of my mom's favorite glass bulbs. Another year, the tree wasn't in the stand right and fell over on it's own!
Another child of the sixties, here.
That's how real Christmas is supposed to look.
Still have my Chatty Cathy somewhere and my guns and holsters.
Yes! Those are Hans Wegner folding chairs, like another poster stated.
http://www.danish-furniture.com/designers/hans-wegner/
They were passed down to me, too. Love the pictures!
Wow, now I feel old and I'm not even in my 40's yet! My parent's family photos were from the 1940's ... my parents had me when they were older I suppose. I love flipping through those old images.
Most of my childhood Christmas photos --black and white-- include a picture of one brother or another decked out in full cowboy regalia, guns a-blazin'.
Those scraggly trees look like every tree we had when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s. They always sat in the corner between the RCA console stereo and the RCA black and white console TV.
I can still smell the flashbulbs...
..and the popped flashbulbs would look all spotty afterwards...fun to see..then came the polaroids...all gathered around waiting to see ourselves coming 'into view'.....