A Vintage Christmas..

[plain old dave]

Seemed like a good idea for this time of year. What are some ways the Forum brings the Golden Age into the holiday season? For us:

-A Christmas Story
-It's A Wonderful Life
-Charlie Brown
-Several others

-One somewhat non-conformist thing we do is we turn on every last light we have on Christmas Night. ALL of them. Even car headlights this year.

And we're really wanting to find a way to go caroling or feed the homeless this year.

Floor's open.

 

[scotrace]

The Shop Around the Corner
[And the remake] You've Got Mail
Christmas in Connecticut
Going My Way
The Dead
etc

We'll read from A Christmas Carol, I'm an assisting minister for the Christmas Eve service at church (I get to be a part of all those families' Christmas Even traditions), I'll cook a big dinner for Christmas Day, and for the first time since 2008, I'll be able to give a present or two.
I used to assist feeding the homeless Christmas day, but it became obvious that there were more volunteers than hungry people. It was kind of pointless.
I'll try to catch the Eve service from The Vatican, and play plenty of offbeat Christmas music, some of it from Edison cylinders.

 

[Fading Fast]

Add to the movie lists above:

"The Bishop's Wife"
"Holiday Affair"
"Remember the Night"
"The Man Who Came to Dinner"
"A Christmas Carol"
"Miracle on 34th Street"
"White Christmas"
"It Happened on 5th Avenue"


Other Golden Era Christmas "things" we do:

Wood-burning fires
Tom & Jerry's
Hot-buttered rum
Rum soaked and aged fruitcakes
Stocking stuffers (no matter your age, and the price per item is set very low)
Christmas music from the '30s - '50s (led by Bing)
Walking tour of pre-war buildings and their Christmas decorations

 

[LizzieMaine]

I go out for Chinese food with one of the kids. But we don't order "Chinese Turkey."

 

[AmateisGal]

This is the vintage corner for my Christmas decorations. I'm getting more and more vintage Christmas decorations all the time, so this will undoubtedly expand. Picture on the left is my grandparents - my grandfather passed in 2008, but my grandmother is still alive at 92.

Ever since I was born, the tradition on Christmas Eve was to go to my grandmother's house, eat butterball soup (a Germans from Russia dish), then open presents. I haven't done that the last few years as my little family wanted to make our own traditions at home. However, since the now-ex-husband is gone (thank GOD), my daughter and I are going to start some new traditions of our own.

For Christmas Eve - going to Christmas Eve service and eating butterball soup, then go and drive around and look at Christmas lights.
Christmas Day - We'll be at my mom's house and I think we're going to see a movie. I can't stand the thought of being in my house on Christmas Day because last year, we were home but my husband had already "checked out" of the relationship and it was not a good day. I knew something was wrong, confronted him with my suspicions, but he denied he was having an affair. I now know it started during the month of December.

Here's to letting go of some parts of my past and starting new traditions!

 

[Harp]

Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at St Peter's Church, Chicago Loop
Christmas Day family gathering, dinner, football; see nephew Ranger volunteer on leave
Vacation time off next week; Art Institute, Lyric Opera-all on the fly, nothing definite
...and see The Bishop's Wife; A Christmas Carol; Sound of Music -definitely
....and also Becoming Jane with Anne Hathaway-long overdue.

 

[HadleyH1]

For me it is more of an interior process.

I close my eyes, chose a decade (my childhood usually) and walk through it...it's all very vivid and brings everything back to life again... sometimes watching old paper photos gives me a similar effect...

I pick and chose a favorite theme, favorite events and people....and voila! everything old is new again!

 

[Harp]

The subzero cold struck Chicago at Christmas, though little snow so far; nothing that compares to back east-Penn and New England,
still the cold upended some plans. The family Christmas gathering was very special, my nephew was in from Army basic and a home cooked
meal is always appreciated by a bachelor. Had hoped to take a gal pal to the Joffrey Ballet's Nutcracker and dinner afterward but the cold
put the kabosh on that. Saw several movies, read, then I wound up heading back to the office today.

 

[MagsRags]

I started making my mom's stuffed peppers the centerpiece of my own Christmas eve dinner 35-40 years ago for no better reason than I liked them a lot and "they're red & green"! At this point my 26 yo daughter (who is mostly vegetarian these days) would be most unhappy without them, even though the gravy is basically Campbell's tomato soup. I tried healthier ways to do it but it just didn't taste right.

 

[Fading Fast]

I started making my mom's stuffed peppers the centerpiece of my own Christmas eve dinner 35-40 years ago for no better reason than I liked them a lot and "they're red & green"! At this point my 26 yo daughter (who is mostly vegetarian these days) would be most unhappy without them, even though the gravy is basically Campbell's tomato soup. I tried healthier ways to do it but it just didn't taste right.

Somewhat similarly, my girlfriend's mom doesn't eat red meat anymore, but because she and her husband had burgers and beers on their wedding night, she still has a burger (and beer) every year on their anniversary of which they just celebrated number 62 (!) this past year.

 

[Edward]

We stayed at home this year (normal pattern is to spend Christmas with my parents), and went to midnight mass at St Paul's cathedral. Beautiful, all except for the hippy evangelical butchering of Silent Night because, presumably, somebody decided it wasn't already Jesusy enough. Cue a third of us belligerently singing the original words, a third following the order of service, and the rest looking confused....

 

[HudsonHawk]

View attachment 98929
This is the vintage corner for my Christmas decorations. I'm getting more and more vintage Christmas decorations all the time, so this will undoubtedly expand...!

Just now getting around to reading this thread, but I have to say...I LOVE that lamp. And I mean that in a non-Brick Tamlin way. My great-grandmother had one very similar, then I remember it in my grandmother's house, now it sits on my mother's piano (because she never plays it anymore...the piano, not the lamp). I reckon my sister has laid claim to it, but we may have to fight. It's the one thing of my mother's that I'd really, really like to have.

 

[Paisley]

I held a Christmas dinner meetup at a hamburger restaurant, since my nearest family is a day's drive away, and I rarely hear from them. I watched Rick Steve's European Christmas special showing traditions in various part of Europe, and got roped into buying Christmas gifts for coworkers the previous week. Christmas morning, the sun was shining on the snowy ground (unusual here), so I took the opportunity to take pictures at a park.

As odd and non-traditional as all of that sounds, I felt like I had a normal Christmas for the first time in many years.

 

[AmateisGal]

Just now getting around to reading this thread, but I have to say...I LOVE that lamp. And I mean that in a non-Brick Tamlin way. My great-grandmother had one very similar, then I remember it in my grandmother's house, now it sits on my mother's piano (because she never plays it anymore...the piano, not the lamp). I reckon my sister has laid claim to it, but we may have to fight. It's the one thing of my mother's that I'd really, really like to have.

Thank you! I found that lamp in an antique store in St. Joseph, Missouri. It's got a wiring issue with it, so I always unplug it every night, but I just adore it.

 

[3fingers]

Thank you! I found that lamp in an antique store in St. Joseph, Missouri. It's got a wiring issue with it, so I always unplug it every night, but I just adore it.

Lamps are very simple appliances. You can easily repair anything that is wrong with them and not spend much money doing it.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Thank you! I found that lamp in an antique store in St. Joseph, Missouri. It's got a wiring issue with it, so I always unplug it every night, but I just adore it.

Repairing, or heck, just replacing the wiring in a lamp is pretty simple and inexpensive. I hope you don't let it keep you from enjoying the warm glow.

 

[Bushman]

My vintage Christmas always involves Christmas Eve with my Dads side of the family, making a ham and sides including pirogis, Polish sausage, red cabbage made just my grandfather used to, and kalazkis hand made just like my Grandmother used to make. We also like to make hand made chocolate chip cookies from an ancient and tattered recipe my Grandmother ripped from the pages of some old magazine when she was younger. They are without a doubt the best chocolate chip cookies I'll ever taste.

Then we reset everything and my mom's side come over, or we go to one of her sisters homes for hand made raviolis, and neck bones boiled in homemade red sauce cooked in my grandmother's vintage sauce pot. Traditional Italian cookies are home made by my aunt every year.

Decorations always include my Grandmother's hand made porcelain statues of angels, Santa boots, gingerbread cookies, and other menageries. The tree, too, is decorated with vintage bells and ornaments, many made by family.

Of course, no Christmas would be complete without some of my favorite classic Christmas movies:
- It's a Wonderful Life
- Miracle on 34th Street
- The Shop Around the Corner
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town
- Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer

 

[AmateisGal]

Repairing, or heck, just replacing the wiring in a lamp is pretty simple and inexpensive. I hope you don't let it keep you from enjoying the warm glow.

Nope, not at all! It's on as we speak! I hope I can have someone fix it for me in the near future.