Tag: Christmas

Depression-Era Santa Starved From Lack Of Milk & Cookies

1937 Cactus

Actually, Santa wasn’t the one lacking that year. The UT Zeta house hosted a Christmas party for needy children, and a makeshift Santa proved too svelte for the outfit. It does make you wonder if folks left out perfectly good milk and cookies for Santa during the lean years.

https://northpole.city

The irony is that the tradition didn’t even START until the lean years. In an era of such economic hardship, many parents used the gesture as an example of generosity and gratitude for the gifts they  would receive on Christmas Day. The Greatest Generation indeed.

Because Coke Said That’s What Santa Looks Like

Coke 1939

Not until artist Haddon Sundblom illustrated Santa Claus for Coca-Cola advertisements in 1931, did Americans associate a large snowbearded man in a red suit with the image of Kris Kringle. Below is Sundblom, enjoying a frosty bottle of his labors.

https://www.illustrationhistory.org

Most of us grew up with the image he created and cannot fathom a slender Santa, much less one with dark hair or no facial hair at all. In 2015, this model tried to offer a trimmer version at Yorkdale Shopping Center in Toronto.

https://www.onecountry.com

What do you think? Should Santa be svelte and hipster, rocking a Beat It jacket? Possibly even vegan?? I don’t think so. I like my Santa jolly and obese, and borderline diabetic from all that Coke and plates of cookies we leave out. I’d tell skinny Santa to beat it.

 

That Neighbor Who Gets The Jump On Christmas

by G. Heurlin

Here it is not even autumn, and he’s already got the decorations on the lawn.

Next, he starts picking out gifts for the grandkids, like this Swedish key harp.

by Donald McLeish

And he can’t put the gifts under the tree unless the tree is dressed to the hilt. I hope it doesn’t block their plasma TV.

https://www.cardboardchristmas.com, George Barkhausen family

Before you know it, he’ll be giving out rides in “one-horse” open sleighs.

by Bertil Norberg

Except that’s not a horse! That’s an actual reindeer!

Nightskating Deserves A Quiet Night

christmasgator.net

Perhaps it is only dusk or overcast, but the lights pop and glow so shimmery, that it looks like evening to me. This is one of my favorite Christmas images, though I confess (living the entirety of my life in Texas), I’ve never ridden a sleigh nor skated on an actual lake (just a rink). In this scene, the kids to the left are dressed for a frosty night and yet the couple on the ice seems to have tossed their coats aside. Perhaps they have worked up quite a sweat.

What about you? Have you ridden in a sleigh? Was it one-horse and open? Have you skated on a lake? Did the ice break and you fell through and someone reached to grab you and administered CPR before you came to an untimely death? No, wait, that was a Hallmark movie…

New Floating Ornaments All The Rage

Nat Geo 11/83

This boy would be in his 40s now, but back in 1983, his top priority was honing his soccer skills in the old section of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. These days, he might be more inclined to simply hang this ornament from his Christmas tree.

oldworldchristmas.com

 

That’s An Odd Declaration

Out of context, this does seem like an odd (if not clearly amateurish) sign to hang in front of a gift shop. However, the town is named Dripping Springs, and folks just call it Drippin’. We passed through it yesterday, and it made my heart warm. I just love seeing people hanging Christmas decorations; it’s that one fleeting moment where everyone is preparing for the holiday that we know will end in the blink of any eye. So for now, just enjoy the season!

Gladys Tempts Fate With Sub-Par Tinsel Skills: Deanne Snaps

Westerner ’64

Gabriel and Maria were privy to the final moments before Deanne went ballistic on poor, inept Gladys, wrestling her to the ground and yelling, “It’s tinsel, Gladys, not a beaded curtain!”

And Gladys never did tinsel again.

giphy.com