Vintage Christmas

Merry Christmas! It's time to take a break from eating Christmas cookies and drinking eggnog. Now that I am more health-conscious, I drink non-dairy organic soy nog. It's terrible! But I do feel healthier. 

As per GDB tradition, I have some vintage Christmas photos to share with you, starting with three that are from Sue B's collection (since these are not "Lou and Sue" photos, she asked me to use the GDB watermark, in case you were wondering). 

Here are four brothers, posing with a globe of the Urf for some reason. One is pointing to Florida, the other to... Illinois? "Here are the latest sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker!". It looks like the youngest boy is around 7, while the oldest might be 18. And when you are 7, an 18 year-old might as well be 30. The boys should have worn their ugly sweaters, there's not much  of that holiday spirit in the pic.

Next is a cute picture of a girl gazing lovingly at her new doll, which even came with a fancy stroller so that she can practice parking it at Disneyland. I was always jealous of my friends who had tinsel on their Christmas trees, but my mom had a fear that somehow the tinsel might cause a fire (shorting out the electric lights or something). I also think she didn't want to deal with putting it on the tree and dealing with more mess. 

This next one is from the same household, but with a different cute kid - this girl is playing with some unidentifiable game of skill. I can't quite tell what the other items are under the tree, but there is a creepy doll glaring at us from the background. Did it just blink??

Next I have three scans from my own stash of vintage slides. This first one is from 1963 - at first I thought that the boy looked like he is about to burst into tears, but then figured that he is probably squinting from Dad's bright lights set up just for the photo. No, I really do think he's about to cry. Well, Christmas can be an overwhelming experience for a kid. He got a Monkey Gun and that sweet red toy convertible, so he's done alright for himself. I hope that castle was for a younger sibling.

From the 50s comes this scan that was a bit too dark, but it's still worth a gander. There's a nice stack of boxes beneath the tree, but nothing's been opened yet. Some of those boxes look suspiciously like clothing. Which I realize is actually a lovely and practical thing to give, but... not much fun for a kid. It's dark outside, maybe this family opened one gift on Christmas Eve like mine does (or used to do)? 

And finally, from 1960 we see this fun photo of a happy boy trying out his desktop chalkboard, complete with an abacus (?). He is not only wearing a feathered headdress (genuine turkey feathers, I believe), but has a cowboy hat on the chair nearby. I love the old TV with the crèche on top, and the homey mid-century furniture.

I hope that all of you enjoy a warm, wonderful Christmas day!

(I'm still out of town, but will be back real soon)