Midcentury Christmas: Holiday Fads, Fancies, and Fun from 1945 to 1970
Midcentury Christmas: Holiday Fads, Fancies, and Fun from 1945 to 1970

Author: Sarah Archer

Publisher: The Countryman Press

Published: 2016-10-18

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 1581575386

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A celebration of Christmas in the 1950s and '60s Midcentury America was a wonderland of department stores, suburban cul-de-sacs, and Tupperware parties. Every kid on the block had to have the latest cool toy, be it an Easy Bake Oven for pretend baking, a rocket ship for pretend space travel, or a Slinky, just because. At Christmastime, postwar America's dreams and desires were on full display, from shopping mall Santas to shiny aluminum Christmas trees, from the Grinch to Charlie Brown's beloved spindly Christmas tree. Now design maven Sarah Archer tells the story of how Christmastime in America rocketed from the Victorian period into Space Age, thanks to the new technologies and unprecedented prosperity that shaped the era. The book will feature iconic favorites of that time, including: • A visual feast of Christmastime eats and recipes, from magazines and food and appliance makers • Christmas cards from artists and designers of the era, featuring Henry Dreyfuss, Charles & Ray Eames, and Alexander Girard • Vintage how-to templates and instructions for holiday decor from Good Housekeeping and the 1960's craft craze • Advice from Popular Mechanics on how to glamorize your holiday dining table • Decorating advice for your new Aluminum Christmas Tree from ALCOA (the Aluminum Company of America) • The first American-made glass ornaments from Corning Glassworks Midcentury Christmas is sure to be on everyone’s most-wanted lists.

Kitschmasland!
Kitschmasland!

Author: Travis Smith

Publisher: Schiffer Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780764329784

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Welcome to Kitschmasland in a fun and nostalgic look at our infatuation with Christmas holiday decor from the 1950s and through the 1970s. This beautiful revised book covers the gamut of decorations - some whimsical, some beautiful - and a treasure trove of campy kitsch that the author calls Kitschmas! Join a magical tour of retro homes decked out for the holidays, and enjoy a variety of festive holiday decorations from our not-too-distant past. Featuring vintage Christmas ornaments, trees, ceramics, and more, over 400 color photos and vintage magazine images are used to illustrate this whimsical journey through some of our favorite decades. This book is a delight for Kitschmas fans, decorators, and the thousands of people devoted to mid-century decor and design.

Christmas Memories
Christmas Memories

Author: Susan Waggoner

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2014-12-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1613128118

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A journey through the Christmases of yesteryear, with artwork, photos, magazine content, and others treasures of decades past. We all have memories of long-ago Christmases locked away in our hearts. This book explores—with vibrant period art, surprising facts, and excerpts from letters, diaries, and magazines through the decades—what the holiday was like from the 1920s through the 1960s. In Christmas Memories, Susan Waggoner, author of It’s a Wonderful Christmas and Under the Tree, looks at bygone holidays from the perspective of those who lived them. Beginning with “Christmas in the Melting Pot,” which depicts yuletide in the early 1920s, she presents detailed snapshots that re-create seasons past. She chronicles the gifts, activities, fads, and fancies that made each Christmas unique; indulges in fantasy shopping at yesterday’s prices; shares thoughts from letters, diaries, and magazines of the era; and makes the past come to life with vibrant period art that lets you revel in the irresistible nostalgia of Christmas memories.

Merry Kitschmas
Merry Kitschmas

Author: Michael Conway

Publisher:

Published: 2004-09-23

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13:

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This text is a celebration of all things campy, cheesy, sparkly, and fruitcakey from the most beloved of seasons. Over 50 recipes and craft ideas for tacky wreaths, customised trees, glittered garlands, overly bejeweled festive wear, Christmas feasts from a can, and much more.

100 Christmas Wishes
100 Christmas Wishes

Author: New York Public Library

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: 2018-10-16

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 1250297419

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A treasure trove of vintage Christmas cards, 100 Christmas Wishes is the perfect holiday treat from the New York Public Library. Every year as the days grow shorter, amidst the holly, cookies, and carols there is another timeless holiday tradition—sending and receiving Christmas cards to and from those you love. 100 Christmas Wishes is a collection of vintage holiday cards, all from the archives of the New York Public Library. The Library houses one of the greatest collections of early Christmas postcards from around the world with thousands of cards depicting every imaginable holiday scene. Archivists selected one hundred of the best cards from the extensive collection to share in 100 Christmas Wishes. From the elegant, gilded Santa Clauses and statuesque angels, to yuletide still lifes, tumbling tots and puppies with bows round their necks, each card is a beautiful celebration of the holiday season. The book also includes six perforated postcards with reproductions of the designs so you too can share a vintage Christmas wish with friends and family on your list. As Rosanne Cash, a patron and friend of the Library as well as a devoted fan of Christmas cards, says in her introduction “This collection of early Christmas postcards, housed for a century in the New York Public Library archives, distills those abiding wishes for the holidays from revelers from long ago and faraway, in a wish for peace, joy, magic, bounty, family, and for light to be shone ‘round the world at Christmas, past and future.’”

The 1945 Sears Christmas Book
The 1945 Sears Christmas Book

Author: Sears, Roebuck and Company

Publisher: Courier Dover Publications

Published: 2021-10-12

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0486849139

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This facsimile of the Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s 1945 Christmas catalog offers a nostalgic look back at consumer goods of the era, from dolls and toy trains to housewares, clothing, furniture, candy, and much more. Also reproduced here is an insightful poem, "Christmas Peace," included in the original mailing to commemorate the end of the war.

Season's Gleamings
Season's Gleamings

Author: John Shimon

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 88

ISBN-13:

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They glitter. They shimmer. They bask in the glow of gently rotating color wheels. They last forever. Aluminum Christmas trees are the most spectacular souvenirs of our most recent Christmas Past-the Christmases of the super-mom 1960s.Season's Gleamings is the first book to celebrate these magnificent trees. More than 45 stunning color photographs reveal the beauty and range of aluminum arbor, from red-foil tabletop models to majestic seven-footers. Photographers J. Shimon & J. Lindemann have trained their camera on their own collection of vintage trees, capturing them complete with hi-fi's and highballs.Aluminum trees were born in 1959 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, once the "Aluminum Cookware Capitol of the World." Within a couple of years, shiny, foil-branched Christmas trees were being made by dozens of companies and selling in the millions. Elvis adorned Graceland's front yard with a row of lighted aluminum trees. Their most famous appearance was in A Charlie Brown Christmas, when Lucy ordered Charlie Brown to "get the biggest aluminum tree you can find."Today the trade in vintage aluminum trees is fierce, and these crisp, beautiful symbols of modern living are again brightening thousands of American holidays. Season's Gleamings is a reminder of how beautiful an aluminum tree can be and makes a perfect gift for lovers of Christmases both real and artificial.

A Very Vintage Christmas
A Very Vintage Christmas

Author: Bob Richter

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-07-01

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 149302213X

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A Very Vintage Christmas embodies the nostalgia and sentimentality associated with the holiday season. Vintage ornaments, lights, decorations, cards and wrapping all conjure up happy memories of Christmases past and serve as tangible mementos of holidays shared with family and friends. In fact, finding these objects, decorating with them and sharing them with others brings an instant feeling of comfort and joy. Coupled with beautiful photographs, tips on collecting, and secret shopping haunts, A Very Vintage Christmas offers a 360-degree look at holiday décor in America and gives suggestions on how to make vintage finds work for today’s audience. While each chapter of A Very Vintage Christmas is unique, there is a common thread that runs through them all: the love of beautiful holiday decorations, and the interest in their history, value, and preservation. The book helps the everyday collector and enthusiast to build their own collection and offers tips on how to make the most of what they’ve got.

Girls' Toys of the Fifties and Sixties
Girls' Toys of the Fifties and Sixties

Author: Thomas W. Holland

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

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If you're like most of us, the mailman's annual delivery of Sears, Roebuck and Company's Christmas Catalog was a holiday event in years past. American children watched the mailbox carefully for those wondrous old catalogs. They were full of childhood fantasies... enough toys, dolls, trains and bikes to make any kid start writing his or her letter to Santa Claus. That's probably why the nickname "Wishbook" stuck. And if you grew up during the Baby Boomer years of the Fifties and Sixties, there's big news. Those lost Wishbook pages full of wonderful toys targeted to girls have been reproduced in Girls' Toys, a new book containing authorized reproductions of the best girl-toy pages from 1950 through 1969. Girls' Toys and its companion book Boys' Toys are two in a series of Sears catalog re-issues. This 8 1/2 x 11" softcover book's 192 pages illustrate hundreds of now-collectible toys and dolls: Barbi and Ken, Shirley Temple, Lucy and Desi's Little Ricky, Betsy Wetsy and Troy Tears dolls, dollhouses and accessories, kid-sized kitchens, tea sets, dress-up outfits, bicycles, games and movie-TV-themed toys from Mary Poppins to the Flintstones. Included is a commentary on the toys, their manufacturers and historical relevance. Particular attention is paid to the manner in which young girls' toys were marketed, often perceived as negative messages in these enlightened times. Put on your Dale Evans Cowgirl Hat and settle in for hours of fond childhood memories. Girls' Toys is fun reading for anybody... male or female... toy fan or not. It's an invaluable reference source for serious collectors and history buffs, too. -- Jam-packed with warm and happy childhood memories. Hundreds ofphotographs and illustrations with accompanying commentary -- A "must have" reference volume for all toy, antique and memorabilia enthusiasts