
With less than three months till Thanksgiving, you might need to start thinking about your gravy needs.
For a ditty to encourage your culinary skills (fraught with innuendo), may I suggest?
With less than three months till Thanksgiving, you might need to start thinking about your gravy needs.
For a ditty to encourage your culinary skills (fraught with innuendo), may I suggest?
Even living in Texas, I’ve never heard of hitting a piñata for Christmas. One might lose the bat (or cane, as it were) and fling it into the Christmas tree, making it a holiday to remember.
Today’s images are all Christmas scenes from dorm life at the University of Texas in 1955. Some images were inaccurately labeled, like this one.
Not everyone. Not Carol.
These Spooks don’t seem to be haunting anything.
This girl seems horrified by her friend’s decoration. Thankfully, Santa is supervising.
We see scenes of tree trimming and wrapping paper cutting.
Men topping a diminutive tree.
Late night gift exchanges.
Ah, the excitement of the first tear!
I don’t know what it is about that font, but I don’t cotton to it. It’s not Nordic or Viking, but there’s something very anti-American about it, believe me. I can see why they chose it; it looks like holly leaves, sure enough. But no me gusta.
Today, we’ll be checking out more Christmas gift ideas from 1949. Yes, 70 years ago! Yes, another Christmas post! Only FOUR MORE DAYS!!
That’s right, Frank! And it’s time for indulging impatience with a new Polaroid camera! Don’t wait a week to have your film developed; get a chemical-smelly, low-res image NOW! You can see the actual size!
But maybe you don’t have a Polaroid. Maybe you have a real camera that needs a real exposure meter. Isn’t it cute–like a l’il Fitbit?
You could upgrade from still photos to moving pictures with a Bell & Howell camera. Is it me, or do the “hilarious Christmas moments” below seem poor choices?
If cameras weren’t your bag, you could gift a pen. Folks used to use pens a lot. For writing letters. And doing accounting stuff. And writing out checks. Now we just use them to sign forms. But Esterbrook gave you all kinds of tip options. Fun!
However, Parker claimed they made the world’s most wanted gift pen. The case looks as snazzy and cozy as a coffin. And no, it wasn’t 1951 yet.
All these gifts sound to mainstream? Too predictable? Well, you could always give your family the gift of Vitamin D and melanoma with a trip to warm places. No self-respecting Hallmark movie would host Christmas in Arizona or California, but if it’s swim trunks and palm trees you desire, wrap some tickets to paradise and stick a bow on them! And whatever you do, Merry Christmas!
Before we lived in a culture where some believed that asking your child to sit in Santa’s lap was a violation of personal rights, kids would line up at department stores to sit in the lap of jolly old Saint Nick and tell him what they wanted for Christmas, without having parents looming within earshot. The little boy in this Plymouth ad definitely has his dad’s back.
Let’s keep in mind that Coca-Cola had only decided what the now-iconic Santa should look like back in 1933, so tweaks were still being made. This Santa hat looks more like a jester cap. How fun is that squiggle of a holly detail?
Next, we have a very basic Santa rendering. He looks like might be about to sneeze, but he’s pointing to the gift of Leica, which should be at the top of your list.
Lastly, we have a rotund and active Santa (no sitting for him!). Fluffy beard? Check! Rosy cheeks? Check! Proper hat? Check! He appears to be unveiling a new fleet of trains.
So if you grew up watching Santa animation and cartoons…
…and got older and decided it was impossible for him to travel from chimney to chimney…
…just know that some of us still believe.
I’ve never lived in a trailer court or hauled a camper or driven inside a 50s car, or even seen more than three inches of snow in my life. So perhaps that’s the appeal here to me. It all looks so campy and fun! I may not ever build a real snowman before I get to heaven, so I’ll enjoy the pictures instead.
For the more refined sensibilities, you may prefer your holiday pooches in cardinal-dotted doorways of resplendent mansions.
Reminds me of a certain Malt I’ve read about…
Or perhaps you prefer a chillier theme for a most chill dog.
Whichever way you go, make sure you can tell the real ones from the fakes!
To me, it looks like Spring Break in the French Quarter. But then again, I’m not well-traveled and have never seen a Brisbane Parade before. This image was taken on January 26th, aka Australia Day, clearly a warm day down under. It’s a national holiday, marking the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and the raising of Great Britain’s flag by Governor Arthur Phillip. And they celebrate with bikinis and floats, as Governor Phillip would have wanted.