1950's Family Christmas Photos

Oh, these are not MY family photos lol. I don't think my folks took any photos during Christmas after the first few years. None that I have seen.

Were your parents big on photographing holidays?

But these are always sweet to look at. This top one, and two more similar look almost like they were modeled, but who knows. Check out the room details:


And the adorable gift wrapping:


Awwww look how happy these kids are:


And a color photo! Wow. Did Mom get a nice set of flatware?


Hope you have many old holiday photos to remind you of the good old days!

Mid-Century Stocking Stuffers

Check this cool toy out. The boxes were often colorful like this one. I got toys similar to these in my stocking as a little Baby Boomer kid (right at the end of the Boom, but Boom nonetheless ha ha).

Now check out the action:




So cool!

And the "sparker" toys, like this:


You use your thumb to plunge the plunger in and out, and it makes wheels spin, Santa pops up and down out of the chimney, and "sparks" are created in the windows of this house:



Both of these are for sale for $5 each currently. A real 1950's collectable steal.

I remember one Christmas when our stockings were so full Santa had to place them each on little stools, and they were stuffed with little metal toys like these, in addition to lots of other toys and candies and the traditional orange and walnuts in the toe of the stocking.

When Mom was a girl growing up in Wisconsin during the Depression, getting an orange for Christmas was a very rare treat. So she carried the same tradition with us, even though oranges were common in sunny California. Still are, I have two trees in my back yard. Mom and I planted those about 10 years ago.

There are so many, many wonderful vintage 1950's Christmas things on eBay right now (at great prices) it's hard to decide what to post about!

Vintage 1950's Christmas Wrapping Paper and Gift Tags

I'm not sure if this paper is really from the 1950's as advertised in the auction (above).

I'm curious: Do any of you ever wrap your Christmas gifts in vintage paper and use mid-century tags and such?

While checking out eBay for these items, the only "truly" vintage wrapping paper seemed to be those folded squares that came in boxes. Like this:




I wonder: When did rolled wrapping paper come about?

Ah ha! Here is an excerpt about the history of gift or wrapping paper:

Early on gifts were wrapped in simple tissue paper or more sturdy brown paper.

The technology did not exist to mass produce a decorated, foldable, paper until the 1890's, when developments in printing presses allowed colored ink to be printed fluidly on stiffer papers.

Wrapping paper's biggest name, Hallmark, stumbled upon the gift wrap market by accident. In 1917, the Hall Brothers's typical offering of green, red, and white tissue paper had sold out in their Kansas City, Missouri store a few days before Christmas. The resourceful owner, Rollie Hall, had sheets of decorative envelope liners shipped over from a manufacturing plant. He placed these large patterned sheets on top of a showcase and sold them for 10 cents each. The decorative paper quickly sold out. The next year, the sheets sold for three for 25 cents, and again they quickly disappeared. The brothers began printing their own Christmas wrapping paper, and soon gift wrap sales rivaled their greeting card department.

Early gift wrappers had to be especially dexterous; scotch tape wasn't invented until 1930! And it wasn't until 1932 that the rolls of adhesive tape were sold in dispensers with cutter blades. Before then packages were tied up with string and sealing wax. In the 20's and 30's small sticky circles were sold in packets along with folded papers that allowed the wrapper to attach the paper. During this time also, small gift tags and a type of sticky decorative ribbon were developed, often included in packets of matching wrapping paper.

Over the years the look of wrapping paper changed as well. The first wrapping paper was decorated in the ornate style of the Victorian era, similar to the Christmas greeting cards that had become all the rage. Gilded flourishes of cherubs, birds, and flowers draped across sheets of popular wrapping papers. In the 30's and 40's, patterns became more stylized due to the popularity of Art Deco. Decorations moved away from nature to symbols we commonly associate with Christmas today. Popular patterns included ice skaters, snowflakes, Christmas trees, and candles. While the symbols remained the same, the artwork became more realistic again in the 50's and 60's. By the 70's and 80's, Madison Avenue had realized the potential of wrapping paper and hence, wrapping paper often had movie or TV show tie-ins, with designs incorporating popular movie or cartoon characters.

Ah ha! Now we know!



I have this "thing" where it's very important for me to determine what era an item was produced. I've become quite good at deciphering font styles and design, but I wasn't sure as I looked at tags exactly what era they were made in.



This (above) are from the late 1960's - early 1970's, or at least the green and orange tags I recognize from way back when.


And these look more 1950's, but you can never tell if some were reproductions. They look "authentic":



But here we can see the font style on the "Christmas Assortment" package, and that is clearly late 1940's- 1950's:



And here you can distinguish designs that look similar to greeting cards in the '40's and early '50's in the blue bell (located top, left-ish) and the Santa's (middle, right):



So, if you are a stickler about what era your Christmas tags were made, I hope this has helped a bit!

1950's Christmas Ornaments

Look at that. The first glance at "vintage christmas ornaments" on eBay and I find the same vintage glass rose ornaments Mom bought about 30 years ago. Not quite "mid-century" per se, but there is something exciting about seeing "your" item om eBay. Or am I just being silly? Ha ha.


So many ornament auctions, and great prices too! I checked this past October and they were selling really well. Now the price seems to have gone down, at the peak of the season. Just a few more wouldn't hurt, right?



The vintage mercury bell ornaments. So sweet. I have one of the modest plastic glitter bells myself:




And the beautiful Poland vintage Christmas ornaments, painted with lovely colors:




The stenciled vintage ornaments:




And the "lots" of vintage ornaments of all kids. :::drool:::




Hangers! Don't forget the vintage Christmas ornament hangers! Check out these wonderful mid-century graphic designs on these modest little boxes. These are currently selling for only a few dollars:




I will be checking out more ornaments and other vintage 1950's Christmas items, and will post up the very best right here!

It's Time For A Vintage Mid-Century Christmas!

I love bowls full of vintage ornaments, don't you? Every time I see a photo like this on eBay, I want to buy it. It talk myself out of it (because I have so many already) and then I tell myself to do the same thing with my own ornaments. Put them in bowls and cups and whatever I have.

Don't think I have many "fancy" vintage ornaments like these, so I might have to work on that a bit. It gives me an excuse to buy more. Ha.

I can't wait to see what's happening on eBay. I have been working my entrepreneurial self like crazy the past month ('tis the season to get all our businesses charging strong for the holiday season) and now it's time to let that do the work for me, and have a little fun time. I bet I have missed some good deals on eBay waaaa, and have missed my blog friends!

Wow, 99 followers! Yikes, I know most of you do wonderful give-aways, but I won't commit to that until I can be sure I have the time to give it the attention it needs. What to give away?

It's time to put away all my vintage Fall decorations and get out the Christmas one's. Not all of them. Still so much house renovating to do. And a guest to prep for in a few weeks, but I am going to get a few things out and displayed. I hope all of you are doing the same. I will be cruising your blogs to see what's up.

And now, to see what mid-century holiday wonders eBay has!

1950’s Thanksgiving

Yikes! I come back after a couple weeks and see I have 20 new followers! Thank you all, I do appreciate!





It’s that time of year, turkey time, and I have honestly been working my little behind off on some new websites and such. I don’t know time-saving programs like Dreamweaver, but I do know html. So I’m building them from scratch, so to speak.



One of the problems is, I am working on business-related blogs too, so I am signed into those blogs these days, which makes it difficult to make a quick post to this blog. Not much of an excuse, I know, but, I must work harder like so many of us during this economy.



I have also had zero, and I mean zero time to do anything on my home, no time to browse eBay or any vintage shops at all. This does not make me happy because I imagine some wonderful mid-century items are slipping out of my hands. Sigh



And I have to be honest. The holidays are not an easy time for me. No, I won’t sing you my blues ha ha we all have them, but with my close family having passed away and friends, love them, but they have their own Thanksgiving plans, I tend to throw myself into my work harder than ever until Christmas, so I don’t have time to be blue.



I vowed I would start celebrating holidays again this year, hence the small Halloween table display. I kept all my Fall colors out and plan on ordering a Turkey dinner from the store like my family used to. I think I had a TV dinner the past three years, so it’s about time. The cats will be thrilled.



And I do apologize for not having more posts for you all lately. I have not abandoned this at all, just have to claw harder than ever to earn a living. The work project will be done soon (fingers crossed) and I can relax a bit more. I want to be sure to do a lot of blogging for Christmas!

p.s. I will read over all the new comments, and comment too! Thanks again for understanding, and for all your thoughts. Much appreciated! I hope to have time to visit all of your blogs as well. I have a lot of catching up to do. =)

Happy Halloween October 31st!

I tried to respond to some of your blogs yesterday, but blogger had kicked me out and I couldn't find my password until today ha ha on me.

I hope all of you have a safe and fun Halloween! Post photos and tell me what you did on your blogs so I can read all about it. =)