Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Christmas Past

It's been such a weird season up here on the  mountain top so far.....we have no snow. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nil. 

What the heck? Where's my white Christmas?

Our local ski resort hasn't even opened yet. They can't even blow snow on a consistent basis - it's just too warm. 

How on earth am I supposed to remember that it is the Christmas season?


I think back to my childhood - it was so easy then, wasn't it? The first little twinkly light that you saw in any department store window and BOOM it was the holiday season! It was all you could think about until the big day!

I read Deb's article at Frugal Little Bungalow this morning and she brought so many childhood memories to my mind....if you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do. What a lovely trip down memory lane!

Deb reminded me of the Sears Wish Book - do you remember that catalogue? It was huge with glossy pictures of everything under the sun....and pages and pages of toys and more toys! We used to fight over the catalogue - "it's my turn, give it to me, you've had it all day!!" We'd sit on the sofa and pore over those pages for hours on end, composing a very detailed letter to Santa, letting him know on exactly which page he could find all the items on our list. 

Santa was always good to us. We were blessed. 

I remember the lights in the windows in our Queens neighborhood - the big, colorful glass bulbs. The lights had to be untangled and bulbs replaced every year. I loved those strings of lights and still to this day when I see a house decorated with them it makes my heart sing. 


There's a house I pass on my way home from work that just decorated their front window with these vintage lights and a plastic light-up Santa. 

I want to go in and give the homeowner a big hug!

Christmas trees were bought from a corner lot in our New York City neighborhood and carried home through the streets. They were decorated with glass ornaments, colorful lights, and lots and lots of tinsel. 

Lots.  And then a little more. Tinsel was the bomb


I miss the tinsel!!

The best, though, were the bubble lights. They were put on the tree last and as children we used to sit and stare at them for hours - they were mesmerizing! 

Via
I bought a bubble light night light a number of years back but I don't know what happened to it. 

My parents had a tree topper that was a star with a stained glass cup with nativity scenes on it that spun around casting colors all over the room. We thought it was the most beautiful tree topper ever! 

My younger sister has all the family ornaments and the tree topper now. 

Via
Things were easy back then. Holidays were pure joy. 

We were kids, everything was innocent. 


I miss those simple holidays. 

I miss Christmas Past. 













20 comments:

  1. I love your memory pictures. Those bubbling lights were always hotter than blue blazes. I do remember getting the J.C. Penney's Christmas catalog and my daughters and I would go thru it together and they would say what they wanted...not like they were going to get it ...you know half the fun was looking and wanting. Once my daughter Karen made a 500 dollar toy list. LOL...I said "honey, there's no way you can expect all that." She said, "It's ok mom, just any of that stuff will be fine. " LOL Thank you for making me remember that...you made me smile. Blessings, xoxo,Susie

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    1. Those special memories are what we hold on to from Christmas to Christmas, aren't they, Susie? xo

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  2. I remember going tinsel crazy too and the catalogs and pouring over them with my brothers. We would sit and pick things from every page-we had no TV so we could do this for a long time. Thanks for helping me remember those days!

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    1. We weren't allowed to watch TV during the day so on a weekend day before Christmas it was such a treat to sit and go through the entire toy section page by page, dreaming of Christmas morning!

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  3. Our tree was always covered in tinsel. I still did that when my boys were little, too! :)

    I am glad my memories stirred yours. No snow here either...it's an El Nino December here in PA thus far!

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    1. I did it when my kids were little, too!! Thanks for stirring up all these memories, Deb!! Your post was wonderful!

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  4. Our tree was always covered in tinsel. I still did that when my boys were little, too! :)

    I am glad my memories stirred yours. No snow here either...it's an El Nino December here in PA thus far!

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  5. I grew up in Florida so the snow is not a memory for me but the tinsel, bubble lights and especially the Sears catalog. We so looked forward to getting it every year. There was no internet so all we had were catalogs with pictures that we looked at over and over again. I miss those days too.
    Karen

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    1. I'm sure you did like we did and folded down pages, stuck in bookmarks, wrote long lists with pages and item numbers....it was a nice way to dream!!

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  6. Oh, how I miss those wonderful Christmases-such a simpler time.As good as I like today's decorations, they can't compare with the vintage ones of years ago.What I wouldn't give to go back to just one of those Christmases.I hope you have a blessed holiday season. Merry Christmas!

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    1. I'm with you, Phylis!! I think that must be why I stick with all the random decorations I've collected through the years...each one brings back a memory when I pull it out of the box at decorating time. Ahhhh, memories!!

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  8. I miss the days of Christmas past also. Such a simpler time. The hubster still asks me to put icicles on our tree. I tell him no...we had to pull those things off when I was growing up and I really don't want to do it now. Then, there was the year my dad experimented with angel hair! I itched for weeks afterwards...it was probably made of pure asbestos...but we didn't know or care...it looked beautiful!

    If you don't get snow for Christmas...how is there going to be any hope for the rest of us??!! ;-) Hugs!!

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    1. We did the tinsel thing when we had a real tree. When we had a fake tree we did the garland tinsel, you know - the metallic garland stuff that got wrapped all over the tree? Like in my baby picture in the post. I liked the real tinsel better!!

      Think SNOW,Benita....Think SNOW!!!!

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  9. I remember the tinsel for the tree and Oh waiting for the special day for the Sears and Penny's and Montgomery Wards Christmas books to come. What fun to sit and circle all the things in the catalogs that we wanted for Christmas. Such good memories. Happy Day.
    Kris

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    1. Weren't we the luckiest kids, Kris? We truly were...and are blessed!

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  10. Lots of good memories....and new ones in the making!! No snow here either. I am not complaining! ;)

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    1. Don't you miss it even a little bit, Kim? It doesn't feel like Christmas! I was out grilling burgers on the deck this evening in nothing more than a sweater - that's just not right! I'm so confused!!!

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  11. Neat memories - similar to mine. I remember those bubble lights my mom searched high and low to purchase them. The tinsel was always a mess but so pretty against the lights, I liked it too. I surely remember those dream catalogs - I like the JCPenny one the most - my brother and I would zoom to the toy section and dream away. Yes I to miss past Christmas. I'm doing my best to recreate it this year - kicking things off with a charlie brown Christmas tree. Less is more!

    Carole @ Garden Up Green

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    1. You have to love a good old fashioned Charlie Brown Christmas tree!!!

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