This was taken in Los Angeles, 1956. The present just opened is a Webcor record player. To the left is my great uncle Paul and the right is my grandpa, seen later washing the car with my dad.

I wonder if there's a tree under all that tinsel. Scanned from a Kodak safety negative. View full size.

This is my father and his sister on Christmas in 1964. Scanned from a Kodak safety negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1919. "Kay Jewelry Co., 407 Seventh Street N.W." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Connoisseur, bon vivant, raconteur, collector of first editions, advertising executive, typography historian, WWII Army Air Corps Photo Recon NCO, and my mother's twin brother, Uncle Albert hoists a Christmas toast in the living room of his San Francisco home in December 1960. You can tell it's Christmas by the holly in the table vase and the star ornament sticking up from the areca on the right; that's his Christmas tree. I took this with my Brownie Starmite. Full size.

In 1959, my engineer father was, as his expression shows, not happy that a part to my brother's new magic set was not working by late Christmas morning. This was my second picture with the Argus C-Twenty camera I received that day so long ago. For $29.95, the camera kit came with one 20-exposure roll of Kodachrome daylight, six No. 5 blue flashbulbs, plug-in flash gun, and a slide previewer. My parents spent an extra $4.79 for the top-grain leather case. For some reason, they never discarded the Fall-Winter 1959 Montgomery-Ward catalog in which the camera was featured. The catalog is now in my home. The camera served me well through high school, college and beyond. View full size.

Holbrooks Family Christmas 1964 in Greenville, SC. View full size.

My grandparents, Norm & Mary Ouellette, in their basement sometime in the 1970's. View full size.

December 6, 1924. "Greenwich Village Follies girls mending toys." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

New York, December 1913. "Christmas tree, Madison Square." 8x10 glass negative, G.G. Bain Collection. View full size. Happy holidays from Shorpy!

I'm sure Santa has been or will be good to this serious little guy, reminiscent though he may be of Augustus Gloop. I can't read the calendar, but the 31st falling on a Friday makes it either 1926 or '37. After researching, I found out that "Boy Scouts to the Rescue" came out in 1921, and the little poem "Am I Ready for School?" was mentioned in a 1924 Louisiana State Health Department bulletin. Any thoughts? [Update: The calendars are from January 1941.] View full size.

"Dorsey Christmas tree, 1922." Merry Christmas to all from Shorpy! National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

December 24, 1954. The only explanation I can come up with for my disturbing expression is that this was the same year my brother took me to see Rear Window. But, since it's the only one of me hanging my Christmas stocking (or of anybody in our family hanging one), I'm stuck with it. And my brother jiggled the camera. Funny thing is, there's already stuff in the stocking (probably with a tangerine down in the toe, like always). I'm 8 and well past the Santa Claus pretense, so I'm probably just helping with the decor. Anyway, what I'm mainly interested in is all the really good stuff that'll be there the next morning. My favorite thing here is all the junk (undoubtedly mine) exploding out of the shelf behind the TV.

Many thanks to everybody who's said nice things about my photos, and gigantic thanks to Dave not only for Shorpy itself, but for his ever-expert editorial emendations. I've had a ball here. View full size.

Not absolutely sure of the date on this one, but it's probably Christmas 1959. I was born in August 1956 which would make me three and a bit when the picture was taken, which seems about right. The picture was taken by my Grandfather with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye (with flash and leather case), which I still have. The airplane, which was my proudest present that year is a tin-plate DC-7 in United Airlines colours. It has a clear plastic bit over the passenger compartment and a friction motor that spins the props when you push the plane along the floor. The wing assembly detaches, probably because that was the only way they could make the plane. If you had skinny fingers (which I do) when you took the wings off you could stick the tip of your finger through the open door at the back of the passenger compartment. I still have the plane, though it's not in pristine condition. A couple of years after this photo was take I noticed on TV that when the propellers of real airplanes spun you didn't see the tips and on my plane you did - out came the scissors and off came the tips. I still have the plane and the camera, and all too few of the glass ornaments on that tree. The socks (thankfully) are gone forever, although they and the TV are immortalized in my blog profile photo.

Circa 1920. "George Barkhausen's Christmas tree." Yet another tastefully understated tree-n-train yuletide display. National Photo Co. View full size.

December 1919. "Christmas tree at the District Jail, Washington, D.C., and some of the prisoners." National Photo Co. Collection glass negative. View full size.