Christmas home decor from the 50s and 60s

[Ohiogal]

See anything from your childhood?

https://www.boredpanda.com/vintage-christmas-house-interior-decorations/#post-comments-area

Look at all the old TV sets! Did your mom always have a poinsettia on top of your TV at Christmas? I remember my mom always put those icicles on our tree.

[jpak]

1. We had the metallic tinsel (recycled every year - even though it was probably toxic heavy metals)

and the glow-in-the-dark plastic icicles - which were way cool.

[Ohiogal]

5. I wonder

how many household pets got sick from swallowing those.

[TexasBushwhacker]

39. We had to some out of our beagle's butt - LOL

[RazBerryBeret]

78. Same here....

we had a little Australian Terrier that ate all the silver tinsel icicles he could reach when we were gone. He has sparkly silver dingleberries for days!!

[Lithos]

33. up to the early 70's it was a lead based foil

They use I think pvc type of plastic these days...

We recycled ours as well year after year so we were still using the unhealthy tinsel bought in the mid 60's up thru the mid 80's.

L-

[Hamlette]

35. yes, they were outlawed in the 60s because they were lead

when they announced they would no longer be sold, my Mom went all over town and bought up a couple of cases. When we went to use them the next year, they had all fused together into a big lump.

Up until then, our tree was covered with them, all hung one at a time. They were beautiful.

[eppur_se_muova]

50. Sometime in my teens, I realized our 'icicles' were so heavy because they were made of lead.

By that point, we had bought some new plastic ones, so I melted the old ones down over an alcohol lamp.

[lark]

90. Yes, those were the height of coolness back in the day-

especially the bubble glow in the dark plastic icicles. Loved those, but when they died, you couldn't buy them anymore.

[Skittles]

2. the golliwog in #10

I had one of those dolls in England

[cwydro]

86. I remember the golliwog from an A.A. Milne book.

My parents were British, and I remember seeing the dolls when we visited England.

[Hoyt]

3. Pretty much captures it. I still put up a vintage aluminum tree with the color wheel.

[Laffy Kat]

4. I always coveted those.

Still do, except we don't Xmas now.

[Ohiogal]

6. Our neighbor across the street had one

Right in their front window when I was small. I used to like watching it at night.

[TexasBushwhacker]

40. My aunt had one of those

My mother thought it was tacky, but we had a fake tree that was like a bunch of bottle brushes, so it wasn't really any better. I was allergic to natural trees when I was a kid. They don't bother me now.

[deurbano]

43. We have a modern knock-off of a vintage aluminum tree, and we have several large ornaments from

the same era that we inherited from an aunt. We also have a color wheel, though I noticed it's a bit creaky when we decorated yesterday. (Which is unprecedented, since we usually procrastinate on the decorating until Christmas Eve!)

I always hated the idea of "fake" trees, but in 2013-14, my daughter spent several months in the hospital dealing with lymphoma. We kept hearing she was coming home any minute, so I kept the "real" tree (with the presents under it) in anticipation of her imminent return. Finally (February!), we had to chuck it (she didn't get home until April), so I replaced it with an aluminum one, which actually fits in well with our somewhat minimalist style and combination of modern and midcentury furniture. I had always previously insisted on the tallest, fresh tree that could fit in our dining room (a bit over 9 ft.), but now I LOVE our much smaller, retro tree. And it's SO much easier, plus we haven't ruined our wood floors with a leak we didn't notice... as happened with a "real" tree. Others in the family yearn for the good old days (the ones AFTER the sixties), and if they ever get motivated enough to take over my Santa (AND Mrs. Clause) role, they can get whatever kind of tree they want, while I relax and pound back the eggnog. But until then, this suits ME!

[CaptainTruth]

62. Awesome! I have a friend who does too.

[Merlot]

7. Cats still look the same!

Although those cats seem better behaved as no trees were pulled down.

[llmart]

8. That was a fun link.

I grew up in the 50's/60's and almost everyone had live trees with the tinsel. We always had a live tree. We didn't have very many presents though as we were poor. There were seven children and our parents never got anything for Christmas. Did you notice how many pictures showed pianos? Those were sort of a fixture in many homes also, though we didn't have one which is ironic since my father was a pianist.

Thanks for sharing that.

[Ohiogal]

9. For sure

Most folks had live trees back then.

I remember my mother said when she was a child they didn’t get their tree until Christmas Eve because her parents didn’t have much money and by then the trees were all half price. And you were lucky to find one that was decent since by then all the nice ones were taken.

[llmart]

11. That's exactly what my parents did.

My father always went to the nearby nursery (we lived in the nursery capital of the country) on Christmas Eve after we kids were in bed and they would decorate it that night. We'd wake up in the morning and it would be so magical. Even though we each didn't get that much, we'd still be excited.

We'd hang up our actual socks and we'd get nuts in the shell, an orange or tangerine, a kumquat and a candy cane. Can you even imagine any child these days being satisfied with that? There may have been some chocolates in there, but I don't remember now. Once you reached 13 you didn't get presents. Lots of times we got new flannel pj's and knee socks, knit hats and mittens. etc.

I've always had a hard time with the Christmas holidays as an adult.

[Ohiogal]

17. The 60s seemed to really begin the big push

to commercialize Christmas, IMO.

[CountAllVotes]

23. That was it, magical!

My father was real good at playing Santa Claus right up until the day he died.

Gosh, so many are gone now!

It brings a tear to my eye as that magic is gone now, gone!

[llmart]

24. Nostalgia can be a cruel thing sometimes.

If only we could all retain that sense of childhood wonder and how the smallest things seemed so magical to us. I have a four-year old granddaughter now and I love watching how much pleasure she gets out of the smallest of things. Too many in this country push our children to grow up too soon or treat the little ones as if they're adults.

[CountAllVotes]

26. Childhood

It is so precious!

Just yesterday I listened to a woman brag about making her Christmas dreams come true.

She had come up with enough money to buy each of her three children an iPhone for Christmas.

Gee whizzzz!

I prefer that magic myself!!!

[llmart]

28. Yikes!

I abhor materialism and when I hear things like this I want to crawl in a hole and live in a fantasy world of my own making. One of my sisters and I talk about this all the time. One of her children bought all three of her kids I-pads one year, and the youngest was 3 years old! My sister ranted and raved for quite some time (on the phone with me) about that one.

[CountAllVotes]

44. All I can say is ...

This is just the tip of this woman's iceberg.

Talk about frightening!

I'll take the magic and the simplicity that goes with it any time at all!

[KT2000]

54. your socks were my socks

real with nuts, an orange, and those little candy canes and ribbon candy that was fuzzy from the sock. That must have been before plastic baggies.
My mother made sure our Christmas was not about greediness and stuff. Even got in trouble for being on the phone with my friend asking each other "what did you get?"

As an adult I remember my brother's step kids coming in the door from their father's with their Christmas presents filled to the top in garbage bags. They had that much more under the tree at my brother's. Kinda grossed me out.

[Ohiogal]

59. I hear you.....

about the big gift haul!

My in-laws had their grandkids and the kids' parents stay from out-of-town every Christmas. When my husband and I were first married, we went over to their house around 11 am on Christmas morning. The adults were all sitting around drinking coffee waiting for the kids to get up! And, there was such a huge number of presents under the tree, the kids got tired of opening up the presents after a while and saved the rest for later! It was appalling. My in-laws were very modest working class retirees at the time, they lived in a small house inside the city limits at that time. I don't know how the out-of-town family fit it all into their car to drive home. I vowed that when we had our kids, I would never make Christmas all about the number of gifts the kids got!

[llmart]

61. Wow. I thought we were the only ones who got that in our stockings.

You stated it so clearly - it does "gross me out" when I hear or see this. My daughter married a man who is an only child and a child of divorce when he was little, so he had the stepmother who overindulged him because she wanted to win his affections. Now he sees nothing wrong with buying his only child things whenever she wants something. My daughter clearly isn't the stronger personality in that marriage, so she goes along to get along.

My two children had plenty at Christmas when they were growing up, but they didn't get anything throughout the year, except one present on their birthdays. I spent so much time telling them stories of my childhood. They have very good jobs and can buy whatever they want whenever they want and I just can't relate to that.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

70. We always got an orange, walnuts and candy canes in our stockings

along with a small toy or gag gift. This continued well into the '80s when we were all grown up.

[yellowdogintexas]

82. we got an apple, orange, tangerines, nuts, Hershey's kisses

sometimes some peppermints.

I especially liked the tangerines!!!

[hunter]

69. I had three grandparents who were, at their very best behavior, indifferent to Christmas...

... and a mom telling us there was nothing Christian about Christmas and how it was probably sinful to celebrate it as such.

One of my grandmas loved Christmas and Christmas shopping. We usually celebrated Christmas at her house.

For inexplicable reasons my parents agreed to host Christmas at our house one year.

On the day before Christmas all my grandparents showed up in the afternoon and my Christmas loving grandmother started crying because we had no tree to put gifts under. So my grandpa, my dad, and I drove to the Christmas tree lot where they were already throwing the remaining trees into a big dumpster. My grandpa chose five small trees, lashed them to the roof of his Cadillac and we took them home. There my grandpa wired the small trees together into one big tree, "just like they do on Hollywood sets," he said, and then we made paper decorations for it.

It was a bigger tree than any of our neighbors had, and my siblings and I had a lot of fun making the decorations.

I won't say it was the best childhood Christmas I ever enjoyed because the Christmas peace only lasted about 20 hours before the adults started arguing again about religion again, but it was the prettiest tree.

[KT2000]

74. great story!

Maybe not the best but a most memorable.


My great aunt (more like a grandmother than my grandmother) came from Ireland to the US. She was beyond indifferent because she didn't understand the US Christmas. She left poverty where Christmas meant a piece of licorice to celebrate the day. I'll never forget that.

[3catwoman3]

10. Not much attractive about the styles of...

...the 50s and 60s - ugly clothes, ugly glasses frames, ugly furniture, ugly wall paper.

[spooky3]

20. yep - this is why I find the HGTV-ish "mid century modern" trend unappealing. nt

[Aristus]

30. My wife and I just finished watching Season Three of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

There was a lot about the times that was ugly. The cat's-eyes glasses frames, per your example; hideous.

But I thought the clothes and the cars were magical. I thought everyone back then was so well-dressed and put-together. And then I remember: they all smoked heavily, so they probably smelled terrible!

[Glorfindel]

12. Very much so...we always had a real tree, next to a real fireplace with a real fire in it

We lived with my paternal grandfather (I still live in the same old house) and always got at least a hundred Christmas cards, which we put around the doors leading into the living room where the tree was. My grandfather had lots of nieces and nephews. They all sent cards addressed to all of us. I believe postage was 3 cents if you tucked in the envelope flap instead of sealing it.

If left up to me, the tree would have been smothered in icicles, but the older generations opted for a more austere look, with a few icicles, not too many ornaments, and maybe two strands of electric lights. The tree was in a corner, so as not to block the view to the television set, which we got in 1954 (I was 8 years old). It was a big Sylvania floor model with "Halolight" surrounding the screen, which was supposed to enhance the viewing experience. It was replaced with a Curtis Mathes color TV in 1967. My sister-in-law's father was a TV repairman, so he wound up with the Sylvania. The only thing I remember sitting on the TV was a ceramic figurine of a little girl and a goose, about 18 inches tall, with "Nasco Italy" on the bottom. My niece has it now.

Thanks for the memories, Ohiogal.

[Ohiogal]

14. Hey Glorfindel

I wrote out my Christmas cards this morning ... all 15 of them! People tell me no one does that any more. It’s sad to me that my list keeps getting smaller because we keep losing family members and friends. I, too, remember my parents getting almost a hundred cards when I was a child. Once Christmas was over and the Poinsettia dried up and the leaves fell off, I remember a modern glass clock with just hands and no numbers on it sitting atop our TV.

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. my mom went with a white tree decorated with turquoise and pink.

cringeworthy.

my grandmother had an aluminum tree with the 4-color color wheel light. also cringeworthy

but so nostalgic!!!

[Ohiogal]

15. But that was so trendy back then!

[CountAllVotes]

16. Christmas cards

Every year my mother would send out her cards and there were hundreds of them it seemed.

Everyone she ever knew or even sort of knew got a card.

She'd spend hours upon hours addressing the envelopes and the cards that we received as a family were placed all around the dining room.

My father was the cook during the holidays (and most other days as well).

It seemed as we got older, Christmas dwindled. We went from a real tree to an aluminum one as is pictured. Those were so ugly I always thought. Why bother?

Towards the end of their lives (my parents that is), there was no longer a tree put up and as for all of those cards, they became few and far between at the end.

As for the doll, they were called Raggedy Ann dolls as they were known in their day. Every little girl had one of those it seemed! There was also a Raggedy Andy doll too but those weren't near as popular!!

Thanks for the memories. I'd almost forgotten or so I thought!

[Ohiogal]

18. My sister and I

always got roped into helping my mom with the Christmas cards - addressing them (usually my sister’s job since she was older and had nice handwriting)...and my job was sealing them, my mom gave me a wet sponge in a bowl to wet my fingers with to seal them. It would take us all evening sitting around the kitchen table to finish them.

[CountAllVotes]

22. I recall it taking a few evenings

I remember the bowl and the water and the plastic thing you fill with water.

Gosh, this brings back so many memories for me.

It was both good and bad for me.

Gee, we really used to go all out!

We even had the front yard decorated with small spotlights on the wooden decorations and the house that had the best decorations in their yard won some sort of a prize if I remember right.

[Ohiogal]

25. My Dad would haul the big ladder out

And attach a string of colored lights across the roof line of our 1950s ranch house.

[madamesilverspurs]

19. There's a dollhouse I recognize!

We always had real trees, and it was my job to hand the decorations to those hanging them on the tree. The tinsel was Mom's specialty. I was sooo glad when they came out with halfway decent looking fake trees -- unlike the real ones they didn't aggravate my allergies; I was well into my twenties before I got to decorate a tree. Nowadays, the tree is much smaller and the ornaments have to wait their turn from year to year. Now that the parents are gone, we divvied up the special ornaments; my favorites are the ones from when Mom and Dad were first married during the WWII years.


.

[Ohiogal]

21. I still have a glass ball ornament

with my name on it ... we had one in red for my sister and one in blue for me... my sister broke hers when we were kids so only mine survived....

[Lochloosa]

27. I had to get to 31 to find them. Rabbit ears.

[dem4decades]

29. Lots of memories, thanks.

[samplegirl]

31. The silver tree's

With the wheel. Didn’t see any of those elves my mom had stuck in everything from fake poinsettia’s to the tree itself.
Everyone just draped their tree in tinsel. Can you still buy that stuff? Most trees were live ones though.

[Ohiogal]

32. Another fond Christmas memory

My father, lying on the floor with his head under the tree, swearing a blue streak, while my mother directed him in getting the tree straight. “Move it just a little bit this way... no, that’s too much! Back that way! More! No wait, now it’s crooked .... move it more the other way ....”

[northoftheborder]

34. The really oldest tinsel was the best, sort of heavy.

But I think it might have had lead in it! The later tinsel was prob. aluminum, very light weight and never hung straight.

[eppur_se_muova]

52. Yes, it was lead, as I discovered when I melted it down. :)

Later aluminized plastic.

[TexasTowelie]

36. The two things that I remember from my childhood Christmases

were that we used to pick very tall trees since our living room had 12' ceilings and that my parents would tape the Christmas cards to the beveled glass panes of the French doors between the living room and dining room. I doubt the latter would occur today since most people don't send Christmas cards anymore.

[Jarqui]

37. They did a nice job preserving a bunch of that look and feel

in the Eisenhower home in Gettysburg

It truly takes you back if you were around at that time.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

38. Sure looks familiar. Check out the tinsel!

[Ohiogal]

42. Is that a family photo, VO?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

47. Yes, about 1953.

I'm the kid on the left.

[3catwoman3]

49. My mother used to cut my bangs practically up to...

...my hairline, much as in your picture. I pretty much detest most of the pictures of me taken before I had any say in haircuts. Maybe I could have someone photoshop in some decent length bangs.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

51. It seems to have been the style in those days, at least for little kids.

[Ohiogal]

64. I had real short bangs like that, too

Circa 1959-60.

[Amimnoch]

41. I'm just tickled that light strings only have 1 light go out at a time now..

God, I hated sitting on the steps in front of the house going down.. bulb by friggin bulb.. the whole string to find that 1 light that was burnt.

Even better, with LED’s they rarely burn out at all now.

[marlakay]

45. Good memories

I remember the tinsel, we had live trees, never expensive ones, and mostly homemade ornaments with a few bulbs and we also hung candy canes. I did that for years as a adult the candy canes not sure when I quit.

My mom always had the poinsettias she loved to decorate for every holiday and this was her favorite. She is 92 now and this is first Christmas she didn’t do anything so i got her a nice wreath all decorated with bells to for her apt door.

She lives in a senior home but has her own apt, they are decorated and have nice tree so she is fine.

I didn’t get a lot of gifts, we weren’t poor normal working family but my parents just didn’t buy a lot which probably was better. I would get one gift from my parents on Christmas eve and one from Santa in the morning and my stocking would have whole walnuts and fruit in it which being a fussy kid i never had. Not sure what my mom was thinking, maybe for Santa I would eat it, lol!

[Liberty Belle]

46. I loved Christmas then and now; I've collected ornaments in my travels and also as gifts.

In the 50s/50s our famliy home was much like these shown- simply glass balls and lots of tinsel on a real tree by a red brick fireplace with a piano nearby and a bulky B&W TV.

Nowadays, we have a home with a stone fireplace and big windows. We still get a real tree, and enjoy remembering all the places we've been. Our whimsical tree includes woodland animals made of pine cones and pine bristles, Santa surfing on a sea turtle (from Hawaii), a brass riverboat from St. Louis, an ornament with a Van Gogh scene from France, a manger scene with Eskimos in an igloo from Alaska, crabs and song birds from New England, Santa with a gator from New Orleans, a wooden toucan from Costa Rica, seashell ornaments from Catalina, tropical fish and a dolphin from Hawaii, a cathedral ornament from Spain, a cowboy hat and boots from Texas, red chili peppers from New Mexico, a Canadian goose and mapleleaf from Canada, a Tonga tapa pig brought back by a friend, a copper elk from Yellowstone, ornaments made by our children and my late mother-in-law, ornaments with photos of family members and pets, and more. We had baby's first Christmas ornaments and other milestones commemorated on our tree. Our son got us Swaroski crystal ornaments. I brought back some historical ones from the Smithsonian and Chicago, and form my hometown of La Mesa, CA's centennial.

Ornaments cost very little and don't take up much room in the luggage, so even in our poor student days we could always manage to bring back one or two, wherever we went. My late mother in law used to give us an ornament or two each year, too.

Now our daughter who just got married is starting an ornament collection of her own, and it was fun picking out the first ones.

Of course we now need an 8-foot tree to fit most of the ornaments, and still leave a few duplicates packed away each year for safekeeping.

I love putting up our tree each year, remembering all the wonderful times we've had. No matter how hard times are sometimes, this always brings me joy.

[TygrBright]

48. I remember my Mom threatening my Dad with divorce if he ever bought a flocked tree. n/t

[KT2000]

55. Ahhh - funny

I understand now, but our pleas for a flocked tree got an emphatic NO! Moms always have to clean up the mess. That went for the spray snow on the windows - NO!

[Duppers]

67. They're back. Pretty but expensive....

https://images.app.goo.gl/Qyd2y9F8oqcWmbqv8


https://s7.orientaltrading.com/is/image/OrientalTrading/13950658?

[SeattleVet]

53. Besides the lead icicles, there was also the asbestos fake snow...

[KT2000]

56. It's a wonder any of us

are still alive. There could even have been a dangerous chemistry set under the tree for the boy in the family.

[SeattleVet]

57. Or even a Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab!

http://www.the13thfloor.tv/2017/07/07/playing-with-radiation-the-1951-atomic-energy-lab-for-kids/

[KT2000]

66. Whaaat??

That is so incredible I am sending this to friends. I bet there were kids in the neighborhood who had one of those, or not. It looks like a pretty expensive set.

[SeattleVet]

68. It was expensive for the times.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 dollars... Or close to 500 today.

[KT2000]

75. Yikes!!

Hey SeattleVet - did you get your Christmas trees at Chubby & Tubby? We did! Lots of space between branches to fill in with that lead base tinsel.

[SeattleVet]

76. Never got one at Chubby & Tubby (damn, I miss that store!)

I grew up in NY, just north of NYC. Moved out to Seattle in 1992 after after a 12-year stint in the Air Force and another 8 years back in NYC at a huge bank in the IT department.

[KT2000]

81. Good move!

I miss Chubby & Tubby too. We have a family owned "variety" store on the Olympic Peninsula that is similar but geared more to loggers. It's called Swains - a family owned store. Don't know how they do it but they seems to carry everything.
I hear Chehalis has a similar store that is family owned - Yardbirds. All the Carhart you can imagine plus everything else.

Yay for those unique family owned stores!!

[Danascot]

58. I loved our bubble lights!

The only drawback was waiting for them to start bubbling once they were plugged in. It seemed to take forever.

[Ohiogal]

60. I remember those!

And yes it took forever for them to bubble.

Also the little merry-go-round things with a foil "propeller" inside that you would hang over a light ..... The heat from the light made the propeller spin.

[rurallib]

79. That is about all I remember from my childhood Christmases

those glorious lights.

When we got married we bought some of what was being sold at that time - early 70s - they barely bubbled. Can't remember why the old ones phased out or were pulled.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

80. We had those, or something like them! I loved them!

I used to sit in the dark with only the tree lights on and watch them bubble. I am still fascinated by shiny, colorful things, like a bowerbird.

[Coventina]

63. I'm amazed by how small most of those trees are!

Now it seems the trend is to get the biggest tree you can get in your front door.

[smirkymonkey]

65. A little before my time, but some things look slightly familiar.

[mnhtnbb]

71. Tinsel or icicles or whatever that silver stuff was

all over our trees when I was a kid in the 50's and even early 60's.

My mom officially stopped decorating trees when I was 16, so I took over. No more tinsel!

[cwydro]

87. We called them dingle-dangles, no idea why lol.

Family name for them I guess.

[hunter]

72. Did mom like her electric floor scrubber?

(Photo #14)

My dad bought one of those (not as a Christmas or birthday gift, he's not an idiot) and he's the only one who ever used it. My mom wouldn't touch it.

[912gdm]

73. #4

I would murder for the chair left of the tree and those lamps.. And if I wore dresses I would take the blue one... Awesome vintage

[The Genealogist]

77. We always had a live tree (through 1981)

My mother's mother owned about a two block long strip of "building lots" that ran behind the houses on my street. My dad would cut down a red cedar from that land, and that was our Christmas tree. I loved decorating it. I still have a couple or three of the ornaments.

My dad's parents had a fake tree, but it was SO cool. It had a little control box with switches. One made the tree rotate, one worked the lights, and a third triggered music. You could have whatever combination of those you wanted, or none of them.

[wnylib]

83. #'s 22 and 29 are like my childhood trees. We

always had a live pine. Glass, hand-painted ornaments in various colors and shapes, plus paper ones that we kids made in school.

Nobody mentioned angel hair yet. We tried it once but it was too scrachy snd messy. Wasn't it asbestos?

Our tree went up the week before Xmas. Everyone got into the act -- kids at the bottom, parents at the top. The afternoon of Xmas Eve we took naps and woke up to presents under the tree. Explanation: big world. Santa started early.

My mother's parents came to.the US as young children from Germany in the Ellis Island era, so we celebrated on. Xmas Eve as Germans did. Children's pageant at church for ALL the Sunday School kids, with gift exchange and candy from the church afterward. Then opened presents at home and stayed up until sleepy. Slept in Xmas day and had big dinner around 2 pm with guests, usually relatives or someone that my parents knew had no place to go.

One year I decided to wait until Xmas morning, like other kids did, but it was no fun opening gifts alone after watching everyone else the night before.

[wnylib]

84. Holidays seemed to last forever. We had 2 weeks

off of school. The Sunday before Xmas, my father's family gathered at his father's farm. My father had 8 siblings who brought their spouses and children. Grandpa's tree had bubble lights that fascinated and mesmerizrd me.

Grandma had died when I was 2, so everybody brought dishes for a buffet dinner. Ham, turkey, scalloped potatoes, veggie casseroles, salad greens, friut jello molds, nut breads, pies, cookies, and seversl kinds of fudge. Hot foods were heated up on the old, woodburning cookstove and oven by my aunts, with practiced skill.

After eating, the cousins went outdoors to go down the steep road in front of the house on sleds snd 'saucers.' No traffic. It was too isolared. Adults stayed inside, snacking, drinking, gossiping, and playing cards.

We ate leftovers in the evening before going home. Driving down the road after our sleds had packed down the snow was tricky. After a few slides into a ditch, we learned to spread ashes from the cookstove and sawdust from the log bin over the road first.

Several businesses shut down for a week or 2 during the holidays so my father and seversl uncles and cousins had time off. The week between Xmas and New Year was for visiting, which included my mother's 2nd and 3rd cousins from her mother's 9 siblings.

We always had a large box of chocolates, some Xmas cookies, and a dish of mixed nuts for guests. Mixed drinks or beer for adults. There were cases of 7 ounce pop bottles for kids in the basement -- orange, cherry, cream soda, and root beer. I was a generous hostess as a kid because I got a chance to take chocolates, cookies, and pop for myself every time I offered them to my cousins.

[SpankMe]

85. Every one of those pictures brings back a bad or sad memory. n/t

[soldierant]

88. All the comments about toxic this and dangerous that make me

think that my sanity may have been saved by my mother's being promoted into a job which required a lot of overtime work at the end of each year, and the consequence that for most of my childhood we didn't have trees. I vaguely remember that, before that, there were some German glass ornaments which my Grandmother had - Ibirds with bushy tails that clipped on - I have no idea what happened to them. But I got accustomed to not having a tree, and to this day all i have is a USB or a battery-operated 6" one

Next time someone brings up "What on earth happened to the boomers to make them so nutso?" we might try to remember tis.

I'm glad everyone here survived with sanity intact.

[reACTIONary]

89. I bet mom really appreciated the gift of a ....

.... floor polisher in #14.

Hope she got something else a little less utilitarian under the tree!