Just for you, SCfan...;o)

It was the early 70's and we had an aluminum Christmas tree from the 60’s. It was passed down to us from some family member who didn’t want it anymore. My Mom referred to it as the "Silver Tree” (as if that would make it seem more elegant). It was a little over four feet tall and came with a tree stand that spun around. We placed it on a two-foot block to raise its height to six-feet. Every year I would avoid inviting my friends over because the tree was so embarrassing. Finally one year on Christmas Eve that ugly beast fell off its block and committed suicide. Its limbs were bent beyond repair and the “Silver Christmas Tree” was history. All us kids stood up and cheered because we knew there would be no more Christmas' with the “Disco Tree".

We had the silver tree...AND the color wheel!

Anybody here remember the color wheel?

It was a contraption that was plastic and divided into 5 sections; each section had a different color on it. A motor drove it; a lightbulb provided the light for it. The object of the game was to get the tree to turn different colors.

The sucker failed one year and melted the plastic whatchamacalit into one gigantic blob of...color. Yuk.

Then there was this horrible 4 foot tall tree that rotated and played music. My mother got it from some aunt who didn't want it anymore.

I also remember this gigantic Santa Claus head. My cousin said the thing gave her the willies.

Now those are funny stories, guys!

Drink, I never said this last year or the year before, when I'd goad you into telling that story, but I do hope that poor tree ended up getting recycled into lots and lots of nice smooth shiny foil that got to grace many many Christmas treats!

In other words....I hope it's suicide was not in vain....sniff.... sniff.....bffffttttth (blowing nose)

lol

; - ]

Recycling back in the 70's was new and included only aluminum cans. Unfortunately the tree wasn't a can (even though it was aluminum, they wouldn't accept it) and ended up in the landfill. Today, we think differently and that tree would have been recycled into Christmas arrangements and decorations - just like you said SCfan. I look at it as - the tree died so others could live. Recycling is one area in our world today that I have to admit - got better with time.

Drink....you are so right....back then it was cans only (recycling)....poor ol' tree....maybe it ended up in the landfill and some nice little birdie (or rat!) family used it's bent and broken branches to sit upon and think deep deep thoughts.....

...."is that a worm I see over there? or is it just another old centipede (yeck)....they taste so gross!"

or

...."is that a nice piece of moldy cheese someone threw out? well, can't let that go to waste...."

stuff like that.....hee

Hi Drink&Smoke, MadMenSuze, and SCfan!

It's so good to see you again! I haven't been posting as often as I would like.
When I saw this thread I had to write!

I had one aunt who had a aluminum tree complete with color wheel, and she put blue balls on it!
Reeeal attractive...

Now those trees are popular again!

I bought a table top model of one over 10 years ago at an antique store. I HAD to have it! And I wanted to show my son what one looked like.
He watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and wanted to know what Lucy was talking about when she told Charlie Brown to get a "great big, shiney aluminum Christmas tree." He wasn't too impressed.

Thanks for the memories!

Drink&Smoke,
Your tree did the noble thing...sigh!

Hidey there, 60's!

Yes, Drink's aluminum tree was unselfish and a martyr.....sigh.....sniff sniff....

I just typed in "aluminum christmas tree" on Ebay and there are 375 items! Some of them are going for hundreds with upwards of 20 bids!

What goes around comes around....just think, Drink...if only it could have hung on and been strong and steadfast, it could have been "recycled" on Ebay and been hot stuff again! Sad sad sad.....

Hee hee!

I have a story about fruitcake I'm debating whether or not to post....the fruitcake lovers (not one of them myself!) on here might get offended. ha

Hey there 60's child, glad you joined the party. ;o) I liked both yours and MadMenSuze stories about your aluminum trees. You're right about the tree being a martyr, SCfan. The tree felt the kids had suffered enough and took the dive. The next year we had a live Christmas tree in the house - that was a good year. Ok, let's hear the fruitcake story. I can't imagine a big fruitcake loving population is out there, so go ahead....

Drink, you talked me into it.....it isn't a classic knee-slapper, but it is chuckle worthy (maybe):

This was mid-December about 1965 or so and we had unexpected company drift through on their way to someplace else (yes, they actually told us that!) relatives of my Mom's whom she never really liked that much but felt obligated to entertain during their visit or risk being deemed inhospitable (for a Mississippi Genuine Southern Belle ~~ unthinkable!)

So, being caught off-guard in the goodies department (my Mom being the mother of a 14 year-old (me) and a 17 year-old (my bro.) and all our assorted friends, was barely able to keep Christmas goodies in the house more than a day or two at a time (yes, I helped her bake and candy-make all through late November to Christmas Day....but, my Dad was a chocoholic/sweets fiend, just like all of us, and it was an uphill battle!)

Anyway, they caught us in between batches of whatever and my Mom asked me to go russell up some snacks....did I tell her my bro. and I and Dad had finished up all but the last 3 of the latest batch of Toll House cookies? No! I just rumaged through the ice box (yes, we still called it that back then) and came across a long foil wrapped item at the far far back....I opened it to find a slightly mashed at the corners "loaf" type fruitcake! It had no date....it had to be AT LEAST 5 years old, from the looks of the foil....so, being ever resourceful, I got out a lovely serving platter, sliced the thing in uniform 1/4" wide slices, arranged them in a beautiful ring on the platter,and presented it with some nice cups of spiced cider (we ate more than we drank, when it came to Christmas goodies!)

The guests gushed and complimented the treats, as my Mom shot glances in my direction that seemed to say "Where the hell.....?"

Anyway, we never heard whether or not the visitors had any unscheduled stops along the way to their main destination or not...but, we sorta hoped they did!

And yes, I know fruitcake is supposed to improve with age, but.....

Hi Everyone! Loved reading your stories. yes, we too had a silver aluminum tree when I was very young. I can remember mom taking it out of the box every year and placing each silver branch in a hole of the middle pole and then she would decorate it with glass balls. Those were the one's that if they fell off the tree they would shatter. Do they still make them now?! It seems the one's they have now aren't as fragile. Year's later we started getting live trees and my siblings and I couldn't wait until mom had the lights on so we could "help" decorate it!! I know we must have made my mom crazy decorating the tree. Our favorite part was placing the icicles on the tree. Mom really wanted one icicle per branch, but with all of us and our impatience we would end up taking big handfuls and throwing them on the tree to see where they would land. We thought the big clumps of icicles were prettier! Plus, by the time it came time to put them on we had lost interest and were ready to go do something else or play outside. Mom said she would wait until we went to bed and then she would go back and redo the tree.

Back to the aluminum tree.. I asked my mom a couple of years ago if she still had that tree...(I would love to have one now, just for nostalgia..maybe put it in a bedroom or something..) but she said she finally got rid of it!! So sad!!!

Now fruitcake, that is a whole different story...I have never been a big fan of it, but my dad loves it!!! My grandmother used to make it and it would be soaking in some kind of liquor (brandy or whiskey..I don't know, but the adults really liked it) Even after all these years, I still haven't acquired a taste for it. Just give me the liquor minus the cake please!!

One of my favorite memories was going outside Christmas morning and seeing Santa's sleigh marks and the reindeers hoof prints in the snow!! Of course, it made it even sweeter years later when I found out my dad would go out very early in the morning before we got up (which was VERY early) and make those marks for us!! That meant a lot to me!!!

Thank you all again for the trip down memory lane and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Wow... I haven't checked out the site since before Thanksgiving, and what do I find but a wonderful topic with happy Christmas vignettes waiting for me! The D.C. area is under two feet of snow but I'm smiling after reading such fun memoirs from you folks out there. Here are a few of my memories from bygone days:

We had a table-top silver aluminum tree in the late fifties, complete with light blue glass balls and blue tinsel ropes. My dad always wanted things to look MODERN, and talked my mom into some pretty gaudy decor over the years!

One of my grandmothers had this gum drop "tree" which consisted of two clear plastic "branches" that fit together in a plastic dish, and you stuck gum drops on the ends of the things. (Can you even buy gum drops anymore?) Everyone sent tons of Christmas cards with the inside flap filled with newsy letters. There were lots of long-distance calls made on Christmas day too, with folks talking real loud even when no one needed to, from force of habit, I guess. Both my grandmothers made and sent fruit cakes, but only one made one I could actually eat. (More of a nut cake with less fruit, as I recall.) Both of them could also be counted on for a flannel nightgown and a hand-sewn sock monkey or clown.

We got splendid toys from Santa Claus in the fifties and early sixties, which was the only time we had anything new except on our birthdays. Lots of baby dolls with fancy layettes, doll furniture, an electric train, a Revell (?) spring-rocked horse, a Britains farm set, a parakeet one year, and finally, our first kitten. He was all black, and we named him Nicholas. Ever since I could toddle up and down the sidewalk, I'd fallen in love with every cat I encountered, and finally wore my mother down with begging when I was twelve in 1964.

We all hated waiting for my dad to do the full-sized tree. We nagged him to buy it, then we nagged him to put it in the stand, then it would sit for days until he was "in a good mood" which usually meant feeling no pain after an extra martini. Then he'd put on his favorite Firestone Christmas record, the one with Vic Damone singing "Deck the Halls" and he'd make Christmas happen. He loved to go overboard, and put bows on everything until my mother started ripping them down in disgust. She grew up pretty Spartan, and hated anything over-dramatic. We always called his silly holiday mood "bowing the cat".

I wish you and yours a very warm and joyful holiday season!

@fifty two-thank you for your memories. I don't know how I could have forgotten about the flannel nightgowns my grandmother would make for us. One of our traditions were to open those up on Christmas Eve and wear them to bed. I started that tradition with my children and they still look forward to opening the Christmas PJ's. Their's weren't handmade like my grandmother's, but they love them anyway. Ahh memories.....

Love reading everyone's memories....so sweet and nostalgic and funny, too!

Jeffe, you made me remember how my Mom would make robes and gowns/pj's for her two grandchildren (our son and my niece/brother's daughter) for Christmas....I have the most adorable pics of them wearing them each year in a big frame with a multiple-opening mat showing them as they grew....priceless. I keep it with the Christmas decorations and bring it out each season. My son always stops in front of it and smiles as he looks at each pic.

And, fifty, isn't it wonderful remembering all those great Christmases each season? I remember I was desperate for a Chatty Cathy one Christmas and was about to explode waiting for the Big Day that year....when I awoke and ran in to see what Santa had brought, there she was (or there her box was) in all her glory. I pulled the string on the back of her neck...."Will you play with me?" she said in that sweet voice. I pulled it again...."I love you", she gushed at her new "mommy" I was in heaven. I played and played and played with her, until finally when I'd pull her string all she'd say was "Wrrrrlll yrrrrrr pllllllll wittttthhhhh mrrrrr" Poor thing. She really delivered every penny of what my parents spent in play value, I will say that....and Barbies, of course, anything and everything Barbie was coveted. I saw the "original" 50th Anniversary Barbie Doll on the web the other day....still fighting the urge to buy it...and now it's even on sale....sigh.

http://www.backtobasicstoys.com/item/productid/8126/

The fantasy of Santa Claus was the foundation of my childhood Christmas memories, and was one I deeply believed in.

I don’t know whether I was particularly gullible or if my parents were especially adept at adding all the tiny details I sought to confirm my belief and deflect the words the naysayers that stalked the playground that time of year. I mean, my Mom and Dad were goooood!

I remember they would make sure just one of the cookies left for Santa on Christmas Eve was found Christmas morning with a single strategic bite taken out of it. I was fascinated by the teeth marks and the cookie crumbs sprinkled on the plate he had touched. For added drama, the glass of milk was only a third full, proving he had been thirsty after delivering our loot. A run to the window to look for snowy footprints of the reindeer and his boots just to confirm he got in our home in spite of its lack of chimney or fireplace. …Did my Dad know your Dad, jeffe64?...:)

I would lay in a tortured little knot on Christmas Eve, clean as a whistle (so Santa wouldn’t mark me with coal) with my eyes squeezed tight trying to force myself to fall sleep. One Christmas, (smarty-pants that I was), I had rationalized that ‘Christmas’ was technically one minute after midnight (24Dec), so I talked my parents into letting the (three) kids to open all our gifts right after midnight. What a mistake! I was so excited and exhausted by 2 or 3am, I had to go back to sleep---the worse thing to do on Xmas morning! We never did that again (I mean, I never suggested that we repeat it)!

Part of the fantasy of Santa being so near was reinforced by Santa traditionally leaving each child a gift with a gift tag that said “from Santa.” I remember being fascinated by the fact that he had actually touched the box and always knew what I wanted year after year. My fantasy shattered the year I recognized the wrapping paper “Santa” used as one my mother had purchased earlier in the week, and “Santa’s” handwriting suspiciously looked just like my Dad’s.

I felt so duped I never fully trusted adults after that. I changed my approach to Christmas with my son by re-focusing from gift-receiving to gift-giving and the real reason for the season. I cling to the memories my innocence and wonderment brought bubbling to the surface every Christmas season and sometimes long for things to rekindle those feelings.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their memories, and Happy Holidays to everyone!

@SCFAN- Ohh the Chatty Cathy doll (unfortunately, I was sooo young when they gave her to me and when I found my parent's pen's, I decided she needed more eyelashes and totally ruined her! I remember trying to hide her in her doll bed, but of course, mom found her and was so disappointed. I still thought she looked pretty, though!! ). And all the Barbie's and Barbie's dream house. Mine was the one that was threefold. It closed up into a neat square but when you pulled it all out it made three rooms. It was cardboard with plastic covering showing all the new "mod" furniture. Believe it or not, my mom still has it and all the grandchildren have played with it. It brings back such wonderful memories when we see it. I bought one for my daughter and hers didn't hold up as well as mine did. Oh how times have changed.

Oh and about the PJ's, mom would make PJ's for the grandkids and for their dolls so they matched. Have pictures as well of the girls with their matching pj's and their dolls. So cute!!

As you can tell, I am loving remembering all of these things!!! Thanks again everyone!!

I had the Chatty Cathy doll and the Kissy doll -- and the Thumbelina doll. That Christmas I remember well -- my mother had some type of horrible flu and she was sick most of the time. We didn't have a Christmas tree up because part of the house was under construction and the Christmas tree usually went in front of one of the living room windows -- they were turning the front porch into an addition to the living room.

Remember the Christmas crafts you made in school? One year it was paper bag Santa Clauses. We each brought in five large paper bags. The teach spray painted the bags red and we did the rest ourselves -- added cotton for the fur trim and so forth, and then assembled the entire thing to look like a Santa.

Christmas gifts from the neighbors were usually pajamas or something useful. Heh.

These toys had to be on everyone's IT List for Christmas in the 1960s:

Thumbelina doll
GI Joe
Any Barbie doll or any Barbie-related franchise toy/doll/game
An Orange Krate bike (also Lemon Krate bikes and Cherry Krate bikes, also)
Any Stingray type of bike; if it had a sissy bar, all the better
Chatty Cathy
Goodie Two Shoes
Any Hot Wheels cars or Hot wheels tracks
Pitch Back -- anybody remember this one?
Viking boat -- my cousin had this one -- it actually rowed when you turned it on
Visible Man and/or Visible Woman model kits
Camp Grenada game
Operation! Game
Mystery Date game
The Hess truck -- Hess had some pretty good toy trucks

I have tears in my eyes reading everyone's posts. I am loving this trip down memory lane and think about what my dad wrote in his memoirs...(indulge me if you will)..

"It was Wolfe who said.."You can't go home again..."...But we all have these wonderful, bittersweet memories.....it is what makes us worth a damn in humanity....think about it!"

Reliving our childhood memories is such a sweet thing and what we try to share with our children and others...Thank you all for reminding me of things I had forgotten and/or things that I loved so much about my childhood!!!

Greytone-- I shed some tears reading your wonderful essay on lost innocence. Thank you for taking the time to share something so many of us may have forgotten over time. It's a rare adult who can enter the world of a child so masterfully. It reminded me of how my oldest son would suffer such anxiety at Christmas that he made himself sick. So we did away with the surprise element and assured him that he WOULD be getting the one thing he dreamed of. Why make the holiday a time of torture? There are other ways to enjoy gift-giving, as you said. My mother-in-law, the youngest of five, was kept in the dark about Santa Claus until she was seventeen! Imagine her disillusion...

But memories of how times were harder for us are the reason we now can enjoy Ralphie's Red Ryder BB Gun story, right?

More toys for the nostalgia list--

Flexible Flyer sled
Easy Bake Oven
Creepy Crawlers
Patty Play Pal Doll (nearly life-size)
Larry Lion (with talking pull-string)
Erector sets (impossible to erect)
Schwinn bike (with streamers and bell)
Cowboy/Cowgirl boots
Breyer horses
Ginny doll with wardrobe
Radio Flyer wagon
Crayola 64 Crayons (with sharpener on the box)
Rock'em Sock'em Robots
Stretch Armstrong
Uncle Wiggily game
Big bag of marbles (I liked swirlies best)
Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs
Plastic cowboys and Indians, farm or zoo animals
Suitcase record player with Little Golden records
Muggs (Muggsy?) the Chimp
Toy piano, guitar, drum set
500 piece Milton Bradley jigsaw (usually with too much sky)
Etch-a-Sketch (also impossible)
Slinky, Silly Putty, Superball

Thanks for reading and commenting on my post, fifty-two...

Just wanted to add....
I'm cleaning out stuff from my mother's estate, and guess what I found?!!! The aluminum Christmas tree and the color wheel we had as children! OMG!

Yes, it's for sale...but, I'm keeping all the old ornaments I've found. I'm really touched and surprised by the Xmas memories each one brings up as I unwrap them from the old newspapers that protects them.

Note to Self: Keep making new memories.....(and learn to quickly release the bad ones...)

I am so glad I took Drink up on his "deal" and posted this thread....love love love reading all the sweet, sentimental and funny memories of my dear Maddict buds.....

Those toy lists made me think of my poor Mugsy (J. Fred Muggs? -- something like that, Zippy? -- I forget) chimp doll...he has been played with so much over the years (by me, my son, my niece, and all the kids who ever visited my Mom over the years -- he was an "emergency toy" left at her house to bring out when any kids visited!) he is plumb earless now! No more cute little "baby shoes", no more little elastic straps to put over your feet to "dance" with him, no more cute little overalls and striped shirt.....plus his stuffing is falling out and his fur is matted and even bald in spots, still he is in a box with tissue paper all around....preserving what's left of him.....can't bear to throw him out!

Oh, and wood burning kits....nothing like a stick with a red-hot metal end to give a kid, huh? I wonder what the age recommendation was on that box....or did they even have those (age recs) back then?

My brother had one, he was about 10 I think (!), and made all kinds of things with it....different world.

Remember Poor Pitiful Pearl?

Grey, loved your Santa memories!

You should put that aluminum tree on Ebay (oh, you did post you're selling it....bet you get hundreds, esp. since you have the color wheel, too....good luck!

Suze, I remember making Christmas crafts, too...sacks, like you said, and a plaster of paris handprint (my Mom kept it forever and I have it now)

When he was about 7, my son's class made those little scrolls that have white fabric, cut with pinking shears, suspended on a dowel ~~ little green paint handprints in the shape of a wreath with little red paint thumbprint "berries" that hangs from a red ribbon which I still display every year.

They also made a Readers' Digest pages angel with the folded pages vertically shaping the angel's "body" (painted gold) and a styrofoam sphere gold "head", pipecleaner "hair", and gold doily "wings", displayed it for ages until it fell apart, now the pieces are stored in a box with the decorations, with a card telling the little story of how he came bouncing off the school bus that year (about six years old) and that sack joustling all the way home from the bus stop (I watched out the window as he merrily clipped down the block to home, wondering if whatever he'd made me would be in one piece when he came through the door!) It arrived perfect and graced the mantel each Christmas season until it was in pieces. I Googled Readers' Digest angel craft and up came many pics....on about the third page of images, there's one with yellow pipecleaner hair that looks just about like it when it was still in one piece....I've often wondered if the gold paint might be the reason it did not age well....

Soooo many great memories....priceless all.

Oh wow, SCfan-- I was thinking just this morning of that wood-burning set my older sister got, and hadn't thought of it in forty years or more! You transferred that memory via telepathy, I swear! I also remember she got a candy-pink metal stove, sink and fridge one year, I think when I was four in 1956. Can someone tell me if that's possible for that year?

Celebrating Christmas in school was something I hated for my kids to miss, but I guess I understand why it was necessary. I tried to recreate some of the old grade school crafts and music-making at home and encouraged them to take part in band, orchestra, theater or chorus performances. Our county had/has a weird policy in place regarding whether to allow sacred Christian music to be played or sung in the public schools-- it depends on the teacher! One of my son's teachers eschewed sacred pieces for the chorus or concert band, while the orchestra director boldly presented carols and instrumental pieces from Handel's Messiah. I'll never forget a particular Winter Concert in which the band director faced the audience with a disclaimer regarding the instrumental rendition to follow, informing us that we were about to hear "Greensleeves" and NOT "What Child Is This". So crazy...

Anyway, my earliest memory of Christmas crafts in school is making red paper Santas with cotton beards and moveable arms and legs attached with brass brads. That would've been kindergarten in December of 1957.

I hope you all don't mind my rambings, but I'm finding it helps alleviate the tension I always feel right about now when so many things have to get done ON TIME and so many people have to be pleased. And then our town gets swamped with a record breakin' blizzard, so there's less time than ever! But I'd be a liar if I said I'd change a thing, because these are the good old days.

SC, pretty much everybody made some kind of ornament or a Christmas craft to take home.

I also have an ornament from somewhere from first to third grad -- It's a paper angel; the body is silver and the wings are white and there's a pipe cleaner halo. I'd kill to know who or where it came from.

I also have a Santa head on a stick -- it decorated the top of a cupcake that some kid brought to our classroom Christmas party (anybody remember the classroom parties? you got dressed up for those parties the same way you did for Christmas day). There's also an old plastic Santa Claus pin that I have from about second grade. I think my aunt gave it to me.

Our 4th grade teacher (who is still around, bless her soul -- I see her around town every so often and I still talk to her) donated a very elaborate spread to us kids for the class Christmas party. I remember what I wore: a dress that had a black velvet long sleeved top, a big round black and white checked skirt (it was cut on the bias) and Ma added a rhinestone snowflake pin (I still have the pin, too)

And add to the IT List for Christmas:
Mr. Ed talking hand puppet -- which we had
Spirograph
Fun Flowers
Creepy Crawlers
Go Go boots!!! I was 9 and was able to fit into my very first adult ladies' size shoe...a SIZE 4 1/2! (hehe -- now I take a size 9 medium.)

Hey, remember clothespin reindeer?

My son's cub scouts den and I made these in the mid-eighties (yes, den mother was I!)

http://reindeer-crafts.com/clothespin-reindeer-craftJPG

Also, the reindeer made with a candy cane, tiny plastic google eyes and pipe cleaner "antlers" with a tiny red pompom for the nose!

And yes, I remember those Christmas class parties....to this day, no sugar cookies taste as good as those back then!

nice stories everybody - and there were exactly 25 posts! since my birthday is the day after, i guess it is appropriate that i would have the twenty sixth post :-) well i was born in seventy six, so i didn't have the benefit of enjoying an aluminum tree but my grandmother did have a tree base that rotated and played Chrismtas carols! I also went to Catholic school and was the narrator in the Christmas pagent in the third grade, i remember being bummed because I wanted to be Mary - too funny!

Nice job on posting this thread, SCfan. ;o) I had no idea so many people had an aluminum tree (or should I say "Silver Tree"?) for Christmas. I read on the Ebay posts that they stopped making them because the color wheel was a safety hazard. Big melting blogs of plastic isn't really good to have inside your house at Christmas. My Mom was going through her shed a year ago and was getting rid of a bunch of old things. She came across our old hot wheels tracks and cars in a big barrel and sent them off to Goodwill. When she told me I looked them up on Ebay. The sets are going anywhere from $500 to $1000. Her face went white and now she never gives anything away to Goodwill without checking with me first. She called me about a roll of Smurf Christmas wrapping paper (maybe j9mac remembers the Smurfs?) from the late 70's that was still in the package. She was pretty happy when she found out it was going on Ebay for $20. Who knows what other finds are in those storage sheds. I managed to catch her before she got rid of one of my old Tonka trucks. Bright orange with real rubber tires. It is still in great shape. They'll never make Tonka trucks like they used to.

j9mac brought up a good point. I can't seem to remember any of the popular toys from the 70's or 80's. Maybe some more bloggers from that era might help us remember. Cheers.

Remembering all of the toys has been fun. I found this site about toys from the 60's and early 70's.

It shows the Easy Curl-I got a big kick out of seeing that again. My sister was here yesterday and I showed them to her and she started laughing remembering how we would try to curl our hair with them in hopes that our hair would turn out like the girls on the box, to no avail. These were just glorified plastic rollers that were filled with sand and were heated by a light bulb.

We also had the Dawn dolls with the Beauty Parlor. My brother had the Big Wheel. He could "get it" on that thing and then pull the brake and slide!!

And the clackers!! Now that was a hospital visit waiting to happen. I think they stopped making them due to injuries sustained by them.

http://www.timewarptoys.com/toys2.htm

Oh, God, Drink.....as to your query about '80's toys.....how about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

My son was nuts about them and had several of the playsets....still are up in the attic....wonder what they go for on Ebay....probably not old enough to really fetch much, I imagine.....that was so sad about your Hot Wheels cars/ track....sounds about like my old Barbies....worth thousands now.....if only I hadn't played with them until they were bald and ugly!

As I've posted before, who knew back then that we were supposed to buy one, never open the box and save it in it's pristine/NIB condition.... and buy a separate one to actually play with? Live and learn.....sigh.

And the clackers!! Now that was a hospital visit waiting to happen. I think they stopped making them due to injuries sustained by them.

=====
I was at an Allman Brothers concert and the show was expressly stopped because somebody in one of the front row had clackers. Until the guy put 'em away, the show wasn't going to continue.

You all have such great memories and wonderful stories. I must admit that mine go back a little farther...like the 50s. One year my brother got a crystal radio set. He would hook it up to one of the radiators in the house for reception. If I was "nice" to him he would let me try it once in a while. I never have understood how that thing worked, but it was fun.

One year I got a five-year diary with a lock on it. I kept the key in a secret place, but as brothers will do, he figured out how to open it up. He was such a teaser but there was nothing scandalous written in it so it didn't give him any ammunition to use against me. lol

During the late 40s and most of the 50s we lived in a rural area close to a huge lake with pine trees planted all around it. There was also a tall wire fence to keep the general population out. During one particularly snowy December, my darling brother got his boy scout hatchet and took a trip to the pine trees. He came home with a beautiful tree which we took great joy in decorating. It seemed to last forever and we hated taking it down.

One of my favorite decorations was a golden walnut made of glass. It was very old at that time and I was able to convince my mother to give it to me when I moved out and was living on my own. I think I still have it packed away.

So many of my Christmas/New Year memories are associated with food and aromas of baking. Mother baked everything from scratch including nut/poppy seed rolls and all kinds of cookies. I've tried to bake some of the things she did and they turned out fine, but never quite the same as hers. It would be a real treat to be able to sit down with her now and have a slice of her kalach and a cup of coffee with her. My dad's favorite at Christmas was a box of cherry cordials...he could down the entire box by himself. I always buy some at this time of the year and think of him and how much he enjoyed them.

Thanks everyone for sharing your wonderful comments and stories. Have a joyful and blessed Holiday!!

Our school always had some sort of holiday bake sale -- my father usually baked the cake that was donated for sale.

There were bake sales for every major holiday -- we used to have a lamb mold and the cake that was made was some sort of coconut cake. (My aunt borrowed the mold and the cakes were no more.)

My family is mostly bakers and cooks -- my uncle worked for a huge commercial bakery for most of his life -- he started working there when he graduated high school. When he and my aunt were dating, he used to pick her up in the company delivery truck. hehe

Happy Birthday a little bit early, j9!

I figure it to be 33 (b. 1976)....is that right? If so, you're one of the young whippersnappers on the forum! ha

That's coming from one of the older Maddicts (58) and that's a very cute baby in your av....

I think we got rid of the aluminum tree somewhere around 1972.

Let's see what else I can remember: I always remember this one particular house that was the perennial winner of the town's Christmas decoration contest -- and I remember a live Nativity that Jersey City always had. it was cool: there were sheep and goats and I think even a couple of geese one year.

Nobody from our area shopped at "the mall" -- there were very local stores that sold what was needed: I remember a Cheap Sam's that sold appliances, watches and other electronic contraptions (hi fis, transistor radios and such). There was a US Toy Warehouse that sold every conceivable toy there was -- there was an entire half floor that sold doll prams (and I got the doll carriage from there one year).

There was Two Guys Department Store -- now defunct -- I sure wish they'd bring that store back for sh!ts n giggles -- the company that owned it still is operational; they bought out a dying mall, refurbished it from the bottom up and reopened it. No Two Guys in there, though...:(

And there were very local department stores: there was a Houthousen's, and S. Klein (haha -- that's where Jane bought a sweater; she said Klein's but I'm pretty sure she dropped the S. Most people referred to it as Klein's.). We also had a Mickey Finn's (I got a Communion dress from there -- usually you bought a dress there for a prom or a formal, also), Little Marcy's and

We never had a "silver" tree, thank goodness; we always went for the real thing.

One of my earliest Christmas memories involved the school Christmas play. When I was not quite 7 I got drafted to play an angel when the classmate who had been selected for the part came down with measles or chicken pox on the day before the play. I can still hear my mother, bless her, on the phone with the principal saying, "why Sister, she'd LOVE to be an angel" all the while as I'm furiously signaling "NO! NO!" - to no avail.

There were 2 of us, and Mary Ellen's father picked me up and treated us to hot chocolate and a doughnut at the nearby bakery before the dress rehearsal. We got into our costumes - altar boy robes in rose and purple, complete with halos and wings.

Big feathery wings. Those wings nearly did me in.

Our job was to each hold one end of the "Blessed Virgin Mary's" cape - an 8th grader for whom it was a big honor to play the part in the pageant. We headed down the stairs, outside into the cold December night to come in through the back of the auditorium, peeling off to the right as the procession headed for the stage. I held the left corner, and Mary Ellen held the right side. Then came the stairs up to the stage.

Now I'd never worn floor length clothing, so maneuvering with the cassock, stairs AND cape was tricky enough. But the stairs weren't particularly wide, and something had to give. Either Mary Ellen's wings were going to be crushed into the wall on her right, or I was going to drop off the stairs several feet into the darkness below to my left because our wings kept knocking into each other.

I almost made it. In a rush of premature congratulatory adrenaline I reached the top step to the stage - and stumbled, falling hard. I banged my knee and - still hanging on to the cape - jerked the BVM to the floor. She shot me a decidedly unholy look. Mortified I scrambled to my feet and sat trying to be invisible at her feet on the stage as the rest of the show went on.

And the next night, the real thing?? Did it again. Honest. But not quite as profoundly and didn't take the BVM with me this time. But I can still hear the ripple of laughter, lo these 50 years later. I knew then and there I had no future on the stage.

Merry Christmas, AA....loved your story. And your earnestness and willingness (well, eventually! ha) to pitch in and fill in for the kid who got sick is admirable.

Hey, been wondering.....how did your daughter's wedding go? Hope great....

SCfan - thanks for the bday wishes - I am still trying to recruit my fellow gen -xers to watch the show!

drink & smoke - in the eighties the Cabbage Patch doll was a huge gift for me - I still remember her name (Merna Carrie) - they came complete with birth certificates and a stamp on their tush! Later on in the ninties, the original nintendo, stocked with duck hunt and mario brothers was a best seller :-)

Now I remember some of those 80's toys, j9mac. My nephew was into the Nintendo and the Mario Brothers. His best friend's name was Lorenzo. My Mom couldn't remember Lorenzo and kept calling him Luigi. And the Cabbage Patch craze, how could I forget that one. People where trading fur coats and hundreds of dollars for those dolls. If that is an original Cabbage Patch doll, it is worth some money!

Happy Birthday J9mac!!!

I remember the Cabbage Patch Dolls and the Care Bears. My younger cousins were really into those. I recall seeing on the news about Moms fighting for those Cabbage Patch Dolls. AT the time, we had no children, and I couldn't understand the craze for those dolls. But as a Mom now, you will do whatever is in your power to get that sought after gift for your child. In the late 80's I bought my husband the Nintendo and joked that I would become a Nintendo widow and would never see him again. Well, we both got hooked on it and finally had a fellow worker bring her 12 year old son to our house to show us how to get through the different levels of Mario!!! LOL

@SCFan- Hope you had a beautiful white Christmas and are safe and warm.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got everything they wanted!!

Take care!

I just remember another Christmas gift staple we received every year - The LifeSaver Story Books. Did anyone ever receive one of those? The book would only have one flavor worth eating - cherry. The other flavors were only a back-up when the cherry was gone. The mixed flavors were next, but again after the cherry ones were gone the roll really had no purpose. Every year I would hope that someone at the LifeSaver company would finally make the ultimate decision to make the yellow colored LifeSaver's lemon flavored instead of pineapple flavored. Who came up with a pineapple flavored LifeSaver anyway?

In the early 60's, Mom had a solid white tree that she decorated with red satin balls. She was always afraid of lights, I guess she thought they would burn the house down, so we didn't have them. Later in the late 60's, we had a silver aluminum foil tree with blue glass balls. I remember my favorite Christmas was 1962 when my older sister and I got Barbie and Midge respectively. We did not get the dream house, but we got lots of clothes and cases for our "girls" and had such fun playing dolls.
There were other great Christmases during the 60's, but my parents divorced in 1968 and it was never the same.

Oh wow, Drink....I remember the LifeSaver's Storybooks!....I always got one each for my son and niece....and they are both grown now (27 and 31) and want to still have them....I tell them to get their own! They both still have all the little ornaments that came inside the "storybook" part.... ha Their favorite is the tiny, about 2" square, Golden Book that came inside it one year that was "The Night Before Christmas" readable and illustrated and all....

I always wished they'd make entire rolls of them in just the Butter Rum!

Hi Drink! Yes, we always had the Lifesaver Storybooks in our stockings. I had forgotten about them. I kind of like the pineapple one's but like you would have preferred lemon.

The wedding went off with only the tiniest of hitches - of which the bride was unaware. A happy and relaxed time was had by all, except me, hostessing like mad.
They are now together in South Carolina, the bride and her father having driven down through that storm last week - they slept in the car south of Roanoke VA - and she and her husband have now set up their apartment. Dad returns tomorrow afternoon, weather and terrorists permitting.

Both of my kids insisted on those Lifesavers Books for years. Actually pineapple is the only flavor I don't like (you're right, who thought THAT was a great idea, especially for kids?) Now cinnamon, yes! Lemon, lime, cherry, orange are fine - why not grape?

Ah yes, those Lifesaver books! And I always got a navel orange in my stocking, too.That would be in the toe. I always wondered why the orange?

My mother spent endless hours making and fussing over her fruitcakes. She started right after Thanksgiving baking, then wrapping them in cheesecloth, and taking them out to be soaked in wine every so often (more "often" then we knew, as it turned out).

Unfortunately, my dad was a strict teetotaler who allowed no alcohol in the house, and PA was a semi-dry state, in which you could not buy alcohol, except from the State Store, it was that regulated. It was quite intimidating to go to the State Store, show your ID and sign your name, so I guess she lost her nerve and instead of asking to buy rum, bought Mogen David wine, which she felt looked more respectable. The story was, she had to have it for the fruitcakes, so Dad said ok.

What we didn't discover until years later was that she liberally dosed the cakes, one shot for the cake, two for herself. Mom spent the holidays in the happy glow of a Mogen David high and my dad said he loved to see Christmas come because it was the only time of the year Mom was in a good mood. Now we know why.

I know this thread is utterly dead, but...just wanted to thank you all for these wonderful, fun-to-read memories.....I, for one, am printing this thread for fun reading in the holiday seasons to come....I'm going to put the print-out in with my Christmas candles (kept in my buffet/china hutch and not with the main Christmas things in the attic) and be pleasantly surprised next December!

Thanks Maddicts!

Hey SCFan- I justed happened to open this thread to re-read everyone's post and to see if there may be any new one's and there you were....!

What a great idea to put these comments with your Christmas stuff and how excited you will be to find and re-read them come December!! A wonderful trip down memory lane!!

Please let us know when you "discover" them at Christmas!!

Take care!

Hi everyone!
I just re-found this thread. What great memories!!

I would love to see a Christmas morning scene on MM with Sally and Bobby and their toys...that would be a real kick!!