Have Yourself a Very Vintage Christmas


Book Description

Recapture the magic of Christmases past with fifty easy-to-make craft projects, candy recipes, and nostalgic retro art! Inspired by the most sought-after treasures from the 1920s through the 1960s, Susan Waggoner recreates a tempting array of decorations and provides step-by-step instructions that allow anyone to deck their halls with cellophane wreaths, glittered glass ornament balls, beaded bell garlands, and whimsical, tinsel-bedecked treat cups. Those pressed for time will also find quick crafts for every decade, along with style notes and decorating tips to pull it all together. Nostalgic art provides a host of images to use in greeting cards and photo holders. And to keep spirits merry and energy flowing, Waggoner includes a sampler of easy-to-make candy recipes, from Mackinac Island Fudge to old-fashioned soft caramels.




A Very Vintage Christmas


Book Description

A Very Vintage Christmas embodies the nostalgia and sentimentality associated with the holiday season. Vintage ornaments, lights, decorations, cards and wrapping all conjure up happy memories of Christmases past and serve as tangible mementos of holidays shared with family and friends. In fact, finding these objects, decorating with them and sharing them with others brings an instant feeling of comfort and joy. Coupled with beautiful photographs, tips on collecting, and secret shopping haunts, A Very Vintage Christmas offers a 360-degree look at holiday décor in America and gives suggestions on how to make vintage finds work for today’s audience. While each chapter of A Very Vintage Christmas is unique, there is a common thread that runs through them all: the love of beautiful holiday decorations, and the interest in their history, value, and preservation. The book helps the everyday collector and enthusiast to build their own collection and offers tips on how to make the most of what they’ve got.




Christmas Memories


Book Description

A journey through the Christmases of yesteryear, with artwork, photos, magazine content, and others treasures of decades past. We all have memories of long-ago Christmases locked away in our hearts. This book explores—with vibrant period art, surprising facts, and excerpts from letters, diaries, and magazines through the decades—what the holiday was like from the 1920s through the 1960s. In Christmas Memories, Susan Waggoner, author of It’s a Wonderful Christmas and Under the Tree, looks at bygone holidays from the perspective of those who lived them. Beginning with “Christmas in the Melting Pot,” which depicts yuletide in the early 1920s, she presents detailed snapshots that re-create seasons past. She chronicles the gifts, activities, fads, and fancies that made each Christmas unique; indulges in fantasy shopping at yesterday’s prices; shares thoughts from letters, diaries, and magazines of the era; and makes the past come to life with vibrant period art that lets you revel in the irresistible nostalgia of Christmas memories.




Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas


Book Description

Profiles noteworthy Christmas films of all types, including movies for children and for grownups, comedies, sad movies, crime and adventure films, horror movies, versions of "A Christmas Carol," the worst movies, and the classics.




Merry Kitschmas


Book Description

This text is a celebration of all things campy, cheesy, sparkly, and fruitcakey from the most beloved of seasons. Over 50 recipes and craft ideas for tacky wreaths, customised trees, glittered garlands, overly bejeweled festive wear, Christmas feasts from a can, and much more.




Midcentury Christmas: Holiday Fads, Fancies, and Fun from 1945 to 1970


Book Description

A celebration of Christmas in the 1950s and '60s Midcentury America was a wonderland of department stores, suburban cul-de-sacs, and Tupperware parties. Every kid on the block had to have the latest cool toy, be it an Easy Bake Oven for pretend baking, a rocket ship for pretend space travel, or a Slinky, just because. At Christmastime, postwar America's dreams and desires were on full display, from shopping mall Santas to shiny aluminum Christmas trees, from the Grinch to Charlie Brown's beloved spindly Christmas tree. Now design maven Sarah Archer tells the story of how Christmastime in America rocketed from the Victorian period into Space Age, thanks to the new technologies and unprecedented prosperity that shaped the era. The book will feature iconic favorites of that time, including: • A visual feast of Christmastime eats and recipes, from magazines and food and appliance makers • Christmas cards from artists and designers of the era, featuring Henry Dreyfuss, Charles & Ray Eames, and Alexander Girard • Vintage how-to templates and instructions for holiday decor from Good Housekeeping and the 1960's craft craze • Advice from Popular Mechanics on how to glamorize your holiday dining table • Decorating advice for your new Aluminum Christmas Tree from ALCOA (the Aluminum Company of America) • The first American-made glass ornaments from Corning Glassworks Midcentury Christmas is sure to be on everyone’s most-wanted lists.




Vintage Living


Book Description

Vintage lifestyle expert and interior designer Bob Richter shows you how to create a vintage home that feels loved and lived-in. Discover how to find the best vintage treasures—from antiques to thrift store finds—that bring beauty, comfort, and personal meaning into your home. Bob Richter has been thrifting and collecting vintage treasures for more than 40 years years, since the age of six. With a true passion for antiques, or any object with a past and a story, Richter speaks to our desire to surround ourselves with belongings that impart beauty and meaning to our lives. Drawing on his years of experience as a stylist and interior designer, Richter takes us through a trove of beautiful historic homes, illustrating how to live stylishly with our vintage finds and collections (hint: buy what you love, express yourself, and don't be afraid to mix periods!). A celebration of the art of thrifting and decorating with antiques of every era, Vintage Living is a full-service guide to: • Navigating flea markets, antique shows, yard and estate sales, country auctions, and the online marketplace • Successfully negotiating and haggling for your vintage finds • Mastering the art of vintage decorating, entertaining, and cooking • Decorating with vintage holiday décor for all seasons (Easter, Christmas, Halloween, etc.) • Giving the perfect vintage gift • Embracing vintage ways—from writing letters to repurposing and recycling • Caring for your old treasures Featuring stunning photographs of interior shoots in beautiful old houses, this bible of vintage living will inspire you to take a personal and creative approach to your décor.




Classic Household Hints


Book Description

An illustrated, nostalgic how-to guide to achieving a clean, organized, and happy home—with over 500 retro tips and tricks! Return your household to the simpler times of yesteryear with this delightful guide full of time- and money-saving tips on everything from cleaning and organizing your home to buying and handling food. Even in an age of endless new household products and devices, these old-fashioned, tried-and-true methods can help any homeowner keep a cleaner, happier home. A thoroughly researched compendium of the best American home life tips from the 1920s through the ’60s, Classic Household Hints is filled with useful information, full-color illustrations, fascinating sidebars, and quotes—providing practical help as well as fun for housekeepers and neat freaks everywhere.




Quilty Fun


Book Description

Quilty Fun includes complete instructions for her incredibly popular Bee in My Bonnet Row Along quilt, along with 10 brand new coordinating projects! This book is jam packed with over 100 pages of projects, tips and inspiration to use all around your home, and the book is spiral bound to last use after use.




100 Christmas Wishes


Book Description

A treasure trove of vintage Christmas cards, 100 Christmas Wishes is the perfect holiday treat from the New York Public Library. Every year as the days grow shorter, amidst the holly, cookies, and carols there is another timeless holiday tradition—sending and receiving Christmas cards to and from those you love. 100 Christmas Wishes is a collection of vintage holiday cards, all from the archives of the New York Public Library. The Library houses one of the greatest collections of early Christmas postcards from around the world with thousands of cards depicting every imaginable holiday scene. Archivists selected one hundred of the best cards from the extensive collection to share in 100 Christmas Wishes. From the elegant, gilded Santa Clauses and statuesque angels, to yuletide still lifes, tumbling tots and puppies with bows round their necks, each card is a beautiful celebration of the holiday season. The book also includes six perforated postcards with reproductions of the designs so you too can share a vintage Christmas wish with friends and family on your list. As Rosanne Cash, a patron and friend of the Library as well as a devoted fan of Christmas cards, says in her introduction “This collection of early Christmas postcards, housed for a century in the New York Public Library archives, distills those abiding wishes for the holidays from revelers from long ago and faraway, in a wish for peace, joy, magic, bounty, family, and for light to be shone ‘round the world at Christmas, past and future.’”