A Blast of Christmas Past: 5 Decades of Retro Photos, Toys and Fashion

I don’t know about you but old photographs of the Christmas of yore are rather remarkable and fascinate me to no end. All those shiny aluminum trees dripping in tinsel, standing next to the most popular object in the room -the Television set– or if it’s pre-1950, a Zenith or Imperial tube radio. It all looks so Americana, pure and intimate, not something that can ever be duplicated again. We’ve come too far too fast. Now the cell phone vies for attention in a room with wall-sized TVs.

Although I’m not old enough to remember but only the very tiniest glimpses of the late 60’s pastel peach and aqua world, I definitely remember with the utmost clarity the glowing gold, green and orange colors of The 70s and especially in it’s later years, when the world was sparked awake to a brand new palette of electric colors inspired by disco and the video games that made “the old world” vanish forever. Those were definitely good times to be young….and The 80s as well.

But what I noticed by perusing caches of old photos by decade from The 50s to The 90s was that, before that “old world” vanished in a blaze of electronic light in 1978, something else very cool stayed rooted to its base and continued to grow, untouched by the progression of time. The magic excitement and the wonder of Christmas morning remained intact and has been passed down untouched in the eyes and the expressions of children; and the tree, central to all things on that day, still evolves as an artistic expression of something that’s forever open to creative interpretation. It’s a place where love gathers, hopes and dreams, and laughter and fashion prevails.

Have a look. See for yourself…