Retro Christmas Redux

This entry is mostly an excuse to post a few pictures around a vague theme.

Okay, so you already know about the aluminum tree and the mid-century modern furniture and the pink and turquoise pinecones.  The retro aspects of Christmas at the Blocher house don't end there, though. A lot of the gifts this year were also based on 1950s-1960s  sensibilities.

The picture on the right was taken immediately after I bagged up the trash (wrapping paper, mostly) once all the gifts were opened.  On the red-orange couch are a bunch of books about that era when babies were booming, colors were bright, plastics were fun, and designs were simple but innovative.  I gave John one of these books, It's a Wonderful Christmas, plus the book version of A Christmas Story, which collects stories by Jean Shepherd on which John's favorite Christmas movie is based.  That film feeds into the whole midcentury nostalgia, too, but really it's supposed to take place in the late 1930s to early 1940s.  But my book purchases were minimal compared to John's. He bought a bunch of books for me on Amazon, following recommendations and "also bought" cross-promotions from one title to the next.  He got me books called Tiki Road Trip, Krazy Kids' Food!, Atomic Home, Going Home to the Fifties, and Southern California in the '50s.  They're all full of neat pictures and stuff, but somebody should remind John sometime that I was born in 1957.  Aside from one highly dubious personal memory, I don't remember a darn thing before 1960 or so.  1960s books, John!  Not 1950s!

That's all right.  They're cool anyway.  They go up on the shelf wih other neat gift books of Christmases past, mostly featuring pictures of toys from our respective childhoods.

Meanwhile, I indulged John's penchant for modern designs with a craft project.  No, I didn't do any craft work myself.  All I did was buy some Styrofoam cones and shiny solid color wrapping paper from Michael's.  The rest is up to him.  See, all through the Christmas shopping season, John's been looking longingly at the cardboard cones representing stylized trees, displayed as in-store holiday decor at Sears and the Discovery Channel Store and probably Target.   Now John gets to make little cone trees of his very own.

And on top of all that, my stepmother, Ruth, DID do some craft work with real vintage materials.  She got Dad to weed through his 40-year collection of ties, and then used her quilting skills to make some of them into cushions.  They now rest proudly on the red-orange couch, too.

Karen