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Merry Christmas: 1951

        A Christmas chestnut from the Tuttle attic:
"Tree -- Dec. 25, 1951." Merry Christmas from Blue Earth, Minnesota, and from Shorpy! 35mm Kodachrome by Grace or Hubert Tuttle. View full size.

        A Christmas chestnut from the Tuttle attic:

"Tree -- Dec. 25, 1951." Merry Christmas from Blue Earth, Minnesota, and from Shorpy! 35mm Kodachrome by Grace or Hubert Tuttle. View full size.

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Tree memories

This is exactly what out trees used to look like in the 60's.

The mismatched ornaments, the Santa, the Stars, the indented ornaments, the Tinsel, the green & red wiring running all over and of course the Topper!

Full Trees

Living overseas in the 50s. I remember my parents and my aunt and uncle getting three real trees. One would go to them, one for us. The third was used to fill out the other two.

And they were big. Or I was little!

The tinsel is what always got me. When taking the trees down, we could not just put the decorations away. No, we had to preserve the tinsel. We could not buy it where we lived. To get more in time for Christmas, would have to get in the middle of summer in the US. Not worth it.

We also had to preserve the wrapping for the same reason.

What we did not have was that white stuff you can see thru the window. Never did experience a white Christmas until I was 16.

Thanks for the memories.

Perfect

Here's wishing that the entire Shorpy family is having a wonderful Christmas Day Thank you, Dave

Blue Earth on Christmas

Thank you, Shorpy. I didn’t realize how much I needed some of the Tuttle family for Christmas until I saw this image today. The Blue Earth series is my favorite. Merry Christmas to all, and thanks again for being a part of my daily life.

What is Real?

Is it then or now. Most kids today might say sometime in the future that their parents had "real" Christmas trees that were hand made in China.

Up until the first 'fake' Christmas tree, there were only real ones. I remember the smell of pine and my grandma saying "Now dear, do not touch the tree if you do not want to get sappy"

I guess in the end I am still sappy, but only about Christmas memories like this one from Shorpy.

[This blue spruce reminds your webmaster of his own childhood! - Dave]

Christmas Tree

Even today when I think of Christmas trees this is what I think of. All through the 50's and 60's this was the only type that were usually sold in the Houston area. I was even a little mad when one Christmas season I was very sick and my mom went out and got a tree for my apartment and she got a spruce instead of a "real" Christmas tree.

Soup box

I assumed the soup box is how the relatives brought over the presents and they just hadn't gotten around to unloading them before the picture was taken.

We used boxes like these when we went camping.

Fire Hazard Reduction

Alas, no wax candles, as far as I can tell.

Being traditionalists, my parents didn't go electric until the late 1970ties.

The smell of real beeswax candles on a real tree is unsurpassed. As well as the arrangement and re-arrangement of the candle holders until daddy was satisfied that all candles well were clear from any branch above. Which took hours. Not to mention daddy's hawkeyed supervision of his kids dearest lighting those candles on X-mas eve. Once. With all due care. And him not leaving the living room until the candles were out again.

The plant stand

Anybody notice the plant in a Calumet baking soda can?

1950s Ornaments

We have some of the same ones (notably the glass birds with the glass fibre tails) on our tree, handed down and carefully preserved. A nice reminder of Christmas growing up in the '50s.

Merry Christmas Shorpyites!

Takes hours to wrap, minutes to destroy

My eldest sister's first job was at a department store in the gift wrap department. She is now in her middle 60s. To this day, when I receive a present from her, it is wrapped to perfection, taped and ready for presentation.

These presents remind me of her skills. As a man, I really prefer the gift bags with tissue paper.

Tinsel perfectionist

Would have made my sister proud; whilst my brother and I preferred to throw handfuls at the tree; she always insisted on draping them one strand at a time.

There were some years we hated her.

At Last!

Something that can compete with the wallpaper!

My first electric train

And a red AMT '51 Pontiac were under our tree on Christmas 1951! Wish I had both back!

The Box!

What jumped out at me about this picture was the Campbell's Soup box! I remember having these at home with stuff stored in them. A product of the days when people would go and get empty boxes from the back of the grocery store to use for storage.

Tinsel on the tree

And snow on the ground.

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