My favorite thing about the holidays is keeping the old time Christmas traditions alive. I love getting all my vintage Christmas decorations out each year… bubble lights on my white flocked tree from the 1960s, decked with my precious ornament collection that includes ornaments that belonged to my Grandfather, made by my Mother, procured on vacations, and gifts from friends and family. Hubby has his own tradition of putting up “his tree”, a 1960s Aluminum Christmas Tree in the lanai, complete with color wheel and placing his treasured collection of antique toys under it. Planning a unique Christmas Day dinner for the family, plotting what funny items to stuff each others stockings with, and spending a day outside hanging the lights on the house and front door are all favorite times of the season. Then comes a long afternoon of making Christmas Cookies, my favorite is the Polish treat Chrusciki, a fried dough delight that does nothing for my waistline but a great deal for my spirits. Here is my Grandmother’s recipe.
Many of the inspirations for my Retro Christmas Card illustrations are derived from long held Christmas traditions. If you look carefully at “Traditional House Christmas Card” you will see kids dreaming over the Wish Book, Mom wrapping gifts in colorful papers, “The Night Before Christmas” being read by the fireplace, and Christmas Carolers on the front lawn. The hunt for the perfect Christmas tree at the tree lot on “Tree Shopping Christmas Card”. Shopping in a festive department store with all the hustle and bustle of the season illustrated in “Retro Christmas Shoppers Christmas Cards”. Our “Mid-Century Decorating Christmas Card” is a scene of a happy family decorating their modern house for Christmas. Everyone loves kicking off the holiday season by watching the Christmas Parade come to town, Santa as the grand finale in “Christmas Parade Christmas Cards”.
Of course it is very important to me to keep up the tradition of sending Christmas cards. It is in some cases the only time we hear from far flung family and friends. It is ever so important to keep up this tradition in this age of emails and texts. It is a great deal nicer (I think) to find a cheerful red envelope in the mailbox rather than receiving an e-message. You cannot display an email on the mantle as an ever present reminder of your loved ones.
We would love to hear all about your Christmas Traditions. I will post this on our Facebook page and you can share all the wonderful ideas you have there. Maybe you will share some ideas that we can all adopt. Cheers!
A few Retro Christmas Card Company selections you may like:
