Christmas 1958

I was recently scanning a bunch of our family slides that I inherited from my Dad. I came across this photo of the Christmas tree at his parent's house on Christmas Eve 1958. I was barely 2 years old that Christmas. I don't recall them ever having a Putz Style Village like you can see under the tree. The two handsome babies in the photo to the right of the tree are my Older Brother and I. Jim sadly just passed away last month. I rememeber in later years playing with that orange road grader you can see at the bottom of the photo. I also rememeber that little drum and the teddy bear. I don't recall that fire engine though. All of these toys stayed there at my Grandparent's house so we would have them to play with when we came to visit later on.

The furthest back I can remember is around the time I was 5 years old which would have been December 1961. They didn't have the Village then so they must have gotten rid of it. One thing I do always remember being on their trees are the Spinner Ornaments you can see on this tree. I was fortunate enough to have been given those ornaments by my Grandmother around 1996. They can be found for sale quite often on ebay, but usually go for as much as $30.00 per ornament.



HERE'S A CLOSE UP OF THE SAME TREE THAT SHOWS THE SPINNER ORNAMENTS BETTER. I THINK WHY MY GRANDPARENTS MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN RID OF THE VILLAGE WAS AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER THEIR CHRISTMAS TREE WAS ALWAYS A SHORT ONE THAT THEY HAD ON A TABLE IN THEIR DINING ROOM. SO PERHAPS THERE WAS NO LONGER ROOM FOR THE VILLAGE. MY GRANDPARENTS AND BOTH OF MY PARENTS ARE GONE NOW SO I HAVE NO ONE TO ASK ABOUT WHERE THE VILLAGE WENT TO. MY OLDER BROTHER DIDN'T KNOW EITHER. I ALSO REMEMBER IN LATER YEARS THAT THEY ALWAYS HAD A STRING OF BUBBLE LIGHTS ON THEIR TREE EVERY YEAR. GREAT MEMORIES THAT I WISH MY DAD HAD TAKEN MORE PHOTOS OF. I HOPE THE PHOTO BRINGS BACK SOME FOND NOSTALGIC MEMORIES FOR YOU:




Here's a photo of how my Grandparent's table top Christmas tree would look in the corner of the dining room. Not sure what year they got the bubble lights, but they aren't on the tree in this photo. My Dad had it dated as 1960 which was the first year they moved their tree to this corner: