Monday, December 21, 2009

Beware: His Tattoo Will Put Your Eye Out

Who doesn't love A Christmas Story? (It's one of my favorite -- though newer -- holiday film traditions) But dude, a tattoo? ...Won't your next favorite film make you remove it?



Tat belongs to Jim of the Spectremen, who recorded a song called Red Rider, a tribute to Ralphie.

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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Thanks For The Reindeer Sweater

This sweater is proof that the dreaded holiday reindeer sweater has been with us for at least 70 or 80 years. (Long live retaliation via fruit cake!)

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Sunday, December 6, 2009

Getting The Christmas Tree

Looking for Christmas tree photos for other blog posts, I found these photos...

Brining home a Christmas tree on a Vespa reminds me of those motorscooter kids carrying home a 3-foot-tall bookcase during Cleanup Week.



Real men cut down a real tree: sawing down the National Community Christmas tree for the Christmas Pageant of Peace in Washington, D.C., 1959.

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Why Christmas Tights Are Important For Little Girls


This looks so much like my sister -- OK, and not just as a child (she wears pants now Christmas Eve for a reason!) I wish it was a photo of her, because then we'd have had an Andy Gibb microphone!

Via Flickr

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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Honey, I Shrunk The Santa


Via Flickr

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Monday, December 22, 2008

Trade Your Spaceship For Christmas Lights?

That's what I said.

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Friday, December 19, 2008

Have Yourself A Retro Little Christmas

Images of All-Electric House interior decorated for the exhibit "A Very 50s Christmas", photographs taken in December of 1999 for use in promotional items -- via JoCoHistory.



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Old Christmas Tree Lot


Christmas tree lot at Jennings Lawn & Garden in Overland Park, Kansas, 1955.

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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Forecast For Santa's Lap: Wet With A Chance Of Tinkertoys

Johnny clearly remembered how wet Santa's lap was the year before.



Via Flickr

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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Paper Crowns For Jesus

More paper birthday hats for baby Jesus; these apparently worn in public, at a restaurant.



Via Flickr.

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It's Easy To See Which Snowman Wears The Pants In The Family


Via Flickr.

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Saturday, December 13, 2008

Buying A Christmas Tree?

Make sure it's taller than your bouffant.



Via Flickr.

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Friday, December 12, 2008

High-Five Friday - Thanks & Christmas Kitsch

1 & 2 Thanks to both Boing Boing and Jezebel for linking to the pixie pajama bag!

3 Hey, did you know I was interviewed over at Marty's ephemera blog? Thanks to Marty, you can now get deeper inside my twisted little mind. (You know you want to!)

4 Shawnee at Kinsanity has a cool campy Christmas series called The Holidays Are For...

5 Friday Night Lists has posted a Top 10 Bits of Christmas Kitsch.

Want to give high-fives too? Sure you do!

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Christmas Dey Curls

As in Christmas curls worn by Susan Dey.

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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Christmas Decorating Tip

Your drapes should not be louder than your tree.



Via Flickr.

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Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Like Birthday Hats For Jesus

Homemade Santa hats, circa 1960s.



Via Flickr.

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Monday, December 8, 2008

Santa Gets Juiced

Technically, this is a vintage Santa reamer -- would you have preferred that I said Santa was reamed?



Via Jazze Junque.

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Battle For The Soul Of Christmas

There's a war on between my evil soap people & the vintage felt Christmas elves, as noted in my CQ article.

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Saturday, December 6, 2008

Pixies: Guardians Of PJs

A cute elf sits on the cover of the first issue of Good Housekeeping Needlecraft magazine (Fall-Winter, 1968-1969).





Turns out he is not an elf, but rather both a pixie and a pajama bag. Click the images to get the patterns & instructions (I tired to color correct the pattern page, but that's the best I could get it). If you make any pixie pj bags, I'd love to see 'em!




I put the skirt instructions for crocheting the long red hostess here -- I'd love to see those if you make them too.

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Monday, October 27, 2008

Scary Holiday Caroler

The holiday seasonal stuff is, like the mall, now being dragged-out for sale at the thrift stores. I spotted this turquoise caroler and briefly considered pairing it with this one -- but decided this one was not only too new & lacking in retro appeal, but too startled looking. Scary even. What on earth could happen to a caroler to make her look like that?

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Friday, April 4, 2008

Craft-Scan Friday: Get Yer Space-Age Santas Here

Remember the 60's and how they promised us a future of hover cars and jet-pack travel? Well, some of us do, anyway. The rest of you can put down your Tommee Tippee cups and see why the rest of us all believed so hard.

See, our moms were busy creating space-age Christmases. Just like Ethel Peterson who had covered the face of her clock (now at a thrift shop near you) with a half-circle of gold-flocked cardboard. "Stars, pasted onto the blue crepe paper, give 'sky' effect."



Pretty potent stuff, merging forever, the idea of travel, space, and free gifts.

Here Santa rides a rocket -- which they call a "jet" ("cut from linoleum rolls and covered with shelf paper, then painted"). Not only better than that, a reindeer rests on the rings of Saturn.



What the heck can be better than typing "a reindeer rests on the rings of Saturn"? Seeing it. I can't wait to make hundreds for next year's holiday craft fair.

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Have A Coolie Christmas

All you thought you had to worry about was your neighbor with the black lawn jockey...

Included in the Pacific Palisades Holiday Tour was this exotic outdoor decoration that blends East and West. Set on an outdoor patio, the antique rickshaw carries a Santa Claus figure and a collection of brightly wrapped Christmas gifts.

The coolie figure was made of papier mache with an Oriental mask face under his collie hat. This holiday display decorates the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Kalasardo of Pacific Palisades.
Found in the 1959, Better Homes & Gardens' Christmas Ideas.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

When Your Plastic Pine Needles Fall...

Here's another version of a tissue paper flower tree, made on last year's tree frame.
Yes, "another version" -- because in this 1959 holiday magazine there's a more, err, traditional tree with tissue paper flowers. I don't honestly know if there is such a thing as a traditional tissue paper blossom decorated Christmas tree... But the other one is huge and I'm saving that one for holiday time. So you get this "diminutive" version, "just right to decorate a dining room or entrance hall table".


I'm not very surprised to find such a "spring posies on a Christmas tree" project; but I am surprised that the last year's artificial tree was plucked of the plastic needles so quickly...

Just in case you need to recycle your artificial tree -- and don't find tissue paper trees anything to sneeze at, here's the pattern & instructions.

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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Saks Fifth Avenue Windows, Holiday 2007


Via Blather From Brooklyn -- also more at their Flickr set.

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Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Larry Groce's Frosty the Snowman

We, of course, have a lot of records, including plenty of Generic Winter Holiday Season children's albums. Most are either commonplace, or poor imitations, but I really like this version of Frosty the Snowman (click here to listen) by Larry Groce. It's light and fun, quite different than the boisterous, cartoony version from the cartoon that the '24-hour- xmas- music' radio- stunting played last month, or even the original Gene Autry version.

Even though Xmas is past, don't knock the winter kids' music -- there's not a hint of Christmas in Frosty the Snowman. Recorded as a cash-in follow-up to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the silly little song gave a personality to every snowman made by kids since (well, up until Calvin took it a different direction) . We even overlook that the song ends with the disgusting death of the main character, and his ominous promise of resurrection...maybe there's something more Easter in the song than Christmas.

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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Best Gifts Our Kitschy Kids Loved This Christmas

We got the kids a few of these toy pens by Stylus Pens (the SpongeBob Squarepants Etch A Sketch Pen & the Nerf Dart Blaster Toy Pen -- and the Star Wars Darth Vader Lego Pen I kept for myself) and they were huge hits. At such small prices, I'm thinking we'll be adding to their collection with birthdays etc.



But the best gift by far was Flarp -- just 88 cents at Walmart, it was not only the thing the three youngest (ages 4, 7 and 11) played with the most, but the thing they called their favorite gift and mentioned to others first when asked what they got for Christmas. We always say that a purchase of Flarp is the best 88 cents ever spent.

See some folks with Flarp in action:



Lessons learned? Kids are cheap thrills seekers. Just like cats.

You can spend big bucks on the latest toys, but all your cat wants is a wad of tin foil rolled into a ball to bat about, or the plastic ring on a milk jug, or a rubber band... I suspect our kids might be easily amused with the same. But we settle for cheap toy pens & Flarp -- oh, and Silly String. Every birthday party, we arm the kids and the grown-ups (all the way to Great Grandpas & Grandmas) with cans of silly string and that's their favorite part.

Cheap gifts rock.

Take that X-Box, Wii and all you expensive toys.

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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Thirteen Kitschy Christmas Crafty Things


Thirteen Kitschy Christmas Crafty Things


Taken from a 1965 Christmas craft publication, these are mostly made with things you have in your home -- so get busy this weekend!



Ooooooh, make Santas? Learn decoupage? From instructions on a record? Why a monkey could do it! ...A monkey who understands English, anyway. Now I want to decoupage a monkey.

The next few prove that retro 60's persons loved the tinfoil...

A tinfoil angel centerpiece:



A flaming tinfoil wreath:



Tinfoil snowman:



And my personal favorite, tinfoil kitty-cat cookie holders -- they're not just for Christmas anymore.



Make festive holiday chandeliers out of coat hangers and cone-shaped paper cups. No mention of light, but I guess I'm expecting too much from paper cups and hangers.



Or, you could go for something more dreamy & use all your clear glassware, filled with colored water, to make this castle.



I don't know that a castle is particularly "Christmas-y" but the 1965 holiday magazine has it in there...

Moving on.

A good hostess wears pretty holiday petti-skirts:



Use your flatware to make a lovely decorative, um... er, serving tray?



I guess your guests won't mind a fork that's been taped to a McDonald's tray... Then again, the house was likely set on fire by these candle holders made of paper.



Don't forget to stand at the door and hand out these gifts you've made for your guests who run from the fire...

Like this flamboyant hairspray can:



As the line says, "For the person who has everything..."



I know I'd enjoy holding a wet faux fur handle as I brush my teeth... And glitter in your teeth? Makes your guests want to say, "Oh no, you shouldn't have!"

But then they notice the guy next to you is getting a well-dressed pet rock:



Merry Kitsch-mas!



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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Decorate A Stranger



Via "The Original", Decorate A Stranger.

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Monday, December 17, 2007

A Very NPR Holiday Mix

"It's time to gather 'round the warm glow of your computer and get cozy with some holiday fare from All Songs Considered."

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Thursday, December 13, 2007

Dominick the Christmas Donkey

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Mary, Mary Christmas



Nothing says, Mary Christmas more than a hot-pink & girly ornament covered Christmas tree.

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Friday, December 7, 2007

Oh, Back When The Airplane Was The Aeroplane & More Magical Than Sleigh Rides!

From the How Many Days Till Christmas, a calendar to make for kids, inside Today's Woman Christmas Ideas magazine (1962), comes this diddy, sung to the tune of Jingle Bells:


Flying through the air,
In a private aeroplane
O'er the world we go,
High above the rain!
Wings on airplane zoom
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A flying song tonight!

Zoom and whirr! Zoom and whirr!
The sky's an open lane!
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a zooming aeroplane!
Zoom and whirr! Zoom and whirr!
The sky's an open lane.
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a zooming aeroplane!

Friday, Dec. 7
Eighteen Days To Christmas


Hey, in 1962, December 7th was also on a Friday!

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