Christmas Nostalgia Thread

[dvcfamily41801]

We used to have these really super hard plastic wall decorations that had a snowman, a christmas tree and I think an angel that would get hung in a window or on the front door (since we didn't do the present door ).

I can't find a picture to post but they really stiff and if you dropped it on you, you would scratch your hand!

 

[paintnolish]

Stockings with your name written on them in gold glitter paint
I have a baby pic of me in from of a 3 dimensional cardboard fireplace. Why? I think I'll ask my mom later why you'd purchase this!

 

[DISUNC]

We used to have these really super hard plastic wall decorations that had a snowman, a christmas tree and I think an angel that would get hung in a window or on the front door (since we didn't do the present door ).

I can't find a picture to post but they really stiff and if you dropped it on you, you would scratch your hand!

Are you talking about the ones that were made with small curled plastic chips, mellted together?

I forgot about them

 

[dvcfamily41801]

Are you talking about the ones that were made with small curled plastic chips, mellted together?

I forgot about them

Yes! Yes! Yes!!

I have been googling and can't come up with them!!!

 

[JessicaR]

Yes! Yes! Yes!!

I have been googling and can't come up with them!!!

I remember them! We had a Santa and a Snowman. It says they are called melted plastic popcorn decorations.

 

[DISUNC]

Yes! Yes! Yes!!

I have been googling and can't come up with them!!!

Here ya go.......

They are called "POPCORN" decorations....
Just google 'PLASTIC POPCORN CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS"

 

[2girlsmom]

I had those of children praying at their bedside, for year round!

I loved those things...

 

[liamsaunt]

I remember in Philadelphia, we would go to the department store Wanamakers. They had a big open atrium--8 or 9 stories high, and on one wall they had a light display. They would play music from the Nutcracker, and the lights would form shapes in time to the music. That store also had an entire floor dedicated to toys, with a train that went around the ceiling that you could ride on.

Last year my DH and I found the yule log on TV, broadcast in digital high definition!

 

[Glenn]

This has really jogged memories. Remember leaded tinsel in the 50s? You could actually thread it between the branches. My dad would work at it to get the tree to just shimmer when the lights were on.
My first tree memory was a small artifial one with bubble lights that my parents bought when they first got married & lived in a very small apartment. I remember sitting there just watching the lights especially when the room was dim.
Here in Chicago Polk brothers used to give you a light up snowman or santa if you bought an applicance from them. Even though they have been gone for 15yrs or more you still see some of them around.
I also remember some of my folks Christmas stories. Nothing big in the depression but more meaning full in many ways. I have 2 christmas tree candle holders that a relative had from the old country before 1900 that I hang on the tree(no candles). Can you imagine lighting candles on a tree even just for a short time!
Oh, on Hard Rock Coco & Joe, a furniture store gave out DVDs of that, Suzzie Snow Flake & Frosty the snowman a couple of yrs ago. They ran out of 35,000 in less than 2 wks & ordered 10,000 more which lasted all of a wk. Sorry this is long.

 

[L107ANGEL]

This has really jogged memories. Remember leaded tinsel in the 50s? You could actually thread it between the branches. My dad would work at it to get the tree to just shimmer when the lights were on.
My first tree memory was a small artifial one with bubble lights that my parents bought when they first got married & lived in a very small apartment. I remember sitting there just watching the lights especially when the room was dim.
Here in Chicago Polk brothers used to give you a light up snowman or santa if you bought an applicance from them. Even though they have been gone for 15yrs or more you still see some of them around.
I also remember some of my folks Christmas stories. Nothing big in the depression but more meaning full in many ways. I have 2 christmas tree candle holders that a relative had from the old country before 1900 that I hang on the tree(no candles). Can you imagine lighting candles on a tree even just for a short time!
Oh, on Hard Rock Coco & Joe, a furniture store gave out DVDs of that, Suzzie Snow Flake & Frosty the snowman a couple of yrs ago. They ran out of 35,000 in less than 2 wks & ordered 10,000 more which lasted all of a wk. Sorry this is long.

did people really put lit candles on trees?

 

[Glenn]

Yes they did put lit candles on trees. My dad talked about having a tree with spread out branches and only having them lit for 10 minutes or so. Of course they did have a big bucked of water there too. It also helped that the tree had been cut down on the farm only a day or 2 earlier so it would not burn like what we buy now days that have been cuts months in advance. Ive also seen prints of 19th century trees that show candles. It was dangerous but it had to be something really special back then.

 

[mickeysgal]

Oh, on Hard Rock Coco & Joe, a furniture store gave out DVDs of that, Suzzie Snow Flake & Frosty the snowman a couple of yrs ago. They ran out of 35,000 in less than 2 wks & ordered 10,000 more which lasted all of a wk. Sorry this is long.

Wasn't that John M. Smithe or Lazy Boy furniture stores that gave out the DVDs??

I have an ancient piece of piano sheet music of Hardrock Coco, and Joe.

My aunt used to have a life sized stuffed Santa that she put in front of the window of her living room. His arm went up and down as if he was getting a present out of his bag.

Anyone get presents wrapped in newspaper - specifically the comics?

 

[Angelrose]

Oh what a great thread! I remember the orange, nuts and big peppermint stick in my stocking. Also a big caramel popcorn ball wrapped in red, green, yellow or blue plastic. Going uptown in Atlantic City to M. E. Blatts to see the beautiful windows full of toys. Then going inside to actually see Santa. You would tell him what you wanted and then he would give you a wrapped present. It took me years to find out that my mom had to pay for that present. The more you paid, the nicer the present. LOL I got junk. The smell of a live Christmas tree and decorating it a few days before Christmas. Waiting for my aunt and uncle to come from New York to have Christmas dinner with us. My uncle was a jeweler and he always gave me the most beautiful jewelry. I still have most of them. I still have the elves. They are under my tree and a few are on it. Going out Christmas night with my Lifesaver book with my parents, grandmom and aunt and uncle to see the Christmas lights in the rich part of Margate. Oh each house was better than the next. I miss that.

 

[wdwgirl03]

This is a fun thread! I have a lot of good Christmas memories but one that sticks out that we don't do anymore is our Christmas pinata. We always celebrate on Christmas eve with my mom's side of the family so when my cousins and I were little, we'd always have a pinata to keep us entertained when Santa came and left our presents. It was so much fun!

 

[JessicaR]

I know there was a post on this thread about a Aluminum Christmas Tree and Color Wheel. I didnt know what it was until I saw this today! I do remember this I think my Grandparents had one. Looks way cool!

 

[Angelrose]

About those ceramic Christmas trees? Yep, I made two of them, one white with white glitter on it with red and green bulbs and the other is green with multi color bulbs. I put them up every year since the 70's when I made them.

 

[tchrrx]

My brother, sister, & I all piled into one bed to sleep on Christmas Eve. We'd spend the evening down the road at grandma & grandpa's, then come home & crawl into bed together. Brother is 5 years younger than me & Sis is 9 years younger. We continued this until I got married & then my mom made me sleep with my husband!

Also, our Santa presents were distinguished by the wrapping paper. All of mine were one paper, while Bro & Sis each had a different paper. Even though I only have one child, Santa still does this. Actually, finding the perfect paper is a bigger challenge for me than finding the perfect gift. We've had years when I didn't have enough of the paper that I'd chosen & DH & I were frantically searching stores for just one more roll! (So far DD has had Disney princess paper just about every year. I'm hoping for HSM, Jonas Brothers, or Camp Rock Christmas paper this year)

 

[Blueberry]

My parents had a fake cardboard fireplace with red bricks, black mantel and a fake fire area. You put some kind of a ligh in there that twirled around and was supposed to make the fire look real... They used to take a photo of us with it about October in the living room for the Christmas cards and I was mad they put it away again I remember till December.

People used stencils on their windows of Christmas shapes like snowflakes, Santa etc.

Fake snow was big in the 1960s to use on things you made in school or scouts.

Every variety show on tv, such as Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Flip Wilson had a Christmas show with special Christmas guests.

Bob Hope had his show in January where he had gone with the USO to entertain the troops all over the world at Christmas which was on every year.

Bing Crosby had a show on every year and of course at some point sang White Christmas.

:

 

[JessicaR]

About those ceramic Christmas trees? Yep, I made two of them, one white with white glitter on it with red and green bulbs and the other is green with multi color bulbs. I put them up every year since the 70's when I made them.

My Mom made one of those when I was little! I wonder if its still around somewhere.

My brother, sister, & I all piled into one bed to sleep on Christmas Eve. We'd spend the evening down the road at grandma & grandpa's, then come home & crawl into bed together. Brother is 5 years younger than me & Sis is 9 years younger. We continued this until I got married & then my mom made me sleep with my husband!

Also, our Santa presents were distinguished by the wrapping paper. All of mine were one paper, while Bro & Sis each had a different paper. Even though I only have one child, Santa still does this. Actually, finding the perfect paper is a bigger challenge for me than finding the perfect gift. We've had years when I didn't have enough of the paper that I'd chosen & DH & I were frantically searching stores for just one more roll! (So far DD has had Disney princess paper just about every year. I'm hoping for HSM, Jonas Brothers, or Camp Rock Christmas paper this year)

My sisters and I did the same! I was the first one married and the first year I told my husband we had to sleep at my Moms. That night it didn't feel right to not sleep with my sisters so we made up one huge make-shift bed on the living room floor and we all slept there. The next year my middle sister was engaged so again we made up the same bed adding yet another person. It went that way until I had the first baby and my husband said, "think we can sleep at our house this year?" Although he was right and it was time I mourned the change. I love those memories.

Santa did the same thing with each child's presents wrapped in a distinct paper and I have done the same with my children. It sounds like we had some similar traditions, you and I.

Fake snow was big in the 1960s to use on things you made in school or scouts.

Every variety show on tv, such as Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Flip Wilson had a Christmas show with special Christmas guests.

Bob Hope had his show in January where he had gone with the USO to entertain the troops all over the world at Christmas which was on every year.

Bing Crosby had a show on every year and of course at some point sang White Christmas.

:

I loved fake snow! My parents rarely bought it though. I looked forward to those TV specials every year!

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Here is one for mostly the guys, watching the Lionel train special before christmas!