Three trees finally went up at home today but this one is the only one decorated so far. It used to be in my bedroom and held vintage pink ornaments. [See here.]
This year I'm hoping to add the pink ornaments to our fresh tree in the kitchen and decided to try this white flocked tree in the living room with vintage red ornaments, some of them purchased on our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. over 50 years ago.
That doesn't mean we lived back in The Depression of our parents' lives but these lines below were written then.
"Back to the Red and White Christmas of Childhood"
by Marni Davis Wood
in The American Home magazine
December 1933
"I for one am all for a return to the good old red and white Christmas of our childhood.
Possibly in a few years we shall look back upon the depression and,
forgetting the cruelties of it, be thankful that it did at least return the real spirit
of Christmas to American homes.
"Those American buying orgies, when we all spent more than we really should have
with the resulting lack of joy and good cheer in the actual giving of our gift,
the almost complete disappearance of a jolly, over-fed family
around the Christmas table,
because most of us were on 'diets,'
the scorn we had for family 'sings' and simple games--remember?
"I do, and shudder to think how perilously near we were to losing one of our most precious
American traditions of simple, jolly 'home-made' Christmases."
R.H. and I are trying to watch our pennies this Christmas. I'm actually having fun with that great decorating idea called "shop the house." And being married over 50 years there is a lot of stuff in this 1920s farmhouse from which to shop.
And for anyone else trying to have a happy and meaningful Christmas without much of a budget for it, my next post will be about a Christmas book written in The Depression about that very thing. It's one of my favorite Christmas books. I like it so much that one Christmas I ordered four old copies to give to each of our adult children.
I hope you're having a happy December, even if you're as slow getting ready for it as I am this year! Here's a last picture of my red and white Christmas tree. The black blur in the corner of the red sofa is not a throw, not a pillow. It is Otis getting comfortable while he watched his mother decorate the first tree of the season. I enhanced it where you could actually see him. Black longhaired dachshunds are so hard to photograph!
Well, you actually can't tell it's Otis, can you? Trust me, that black furry throw is him! Tonight we have some Christmas lights to look at. Our Christmas has begun.
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