An Old-Fashioned Christmas

Create the Warmth of an Old-Fashioned Christmas

Turn the clock back to the 1950s, the 1930s, the 1880s.... what fun to experience Christmas the way it was in the Good Old Days.


The photo shows my grandfather pulling my mother and her sister on a sled back in the early 1930s.
I'll share with you what some of the Christmas decorations and customs were from those earlier days. There are crafts and budget-friendly activities. Try some out and make your Christmas a good old-fashioned one this year.



Vintage Christmas - Girl Baking Cookies card
Vintage Christmas - Girl Baking Cookies by vintagegiftmall

A Little House on the Prairie Christmas

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Make Your Own Ornaments and Christmas Decorations

Sewing machine - making christmas ornaments

Make Ornaments for an Old-Fashioned Christmas

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To Have an Old-Fashioned Christmas

Try These Crafts and Holiday Ideas

Little House on the Prairie Crafts Based on Laura Ingalls Wilder | Suite101.com
Crafty ideas for younger and older homeschoolers, based on the Little House series. Fun as stand-alone projects or as part of a Laura Ingalls Wilder topic study.

Christmas Eve mousepad
Christmas Eve by YesterdayCafe

My Flint Hills Childhood

Stories from the Heart

Read about a 1930s Christmas. Written by 85 year old Gail Lee Martin, this book won the 2010 Ferguson Kansas History Book Award.

A 1930s Christmas

Gail Lee Martin writes about celebrating Christmas in the 1930s in her book, My Flint Hills Childhood: Growing Up in 1930s Kansas. Read the excerpt in the link below and go to the second link to preview portions of the book. This 85 year old lady has some wonderful homespun memories of life and holidays during the Great Depression.
My Flint Hills Childhood by Gail Lee Martin | Make Your Own Book
Book Excerpt: "Cranberries, Popcorn And Silver Stars"
Enjoy these 1930s memories. You could even try duplicating some of the decorations from that period, following her directions.
Preview the Book (My Flint Hills Childhood) Here (or click on the preview above)
A childhood on the Kansas prairies in the 1930s springs vividly to life in the detailed memories of Gail Martin. Her simple accounts of long ago school days, celebrations and family life are a treasure. Travel back in time to life in the Flint Hills during the Great Depression and the time leading up to World War II.
The memories include her father's work in the oil field, trips to town in the family's Model A, raising her pet badger, fishing on the Cottonwood River, and wearing dresses made from feed sack material.
The book also explores her family's role in early Kansas history with details of covered wagons, homesteading, the Civil War and fledgling industries. These range from Tyro to Teterville to Eureka.

Some Old-Fashioned Christmas Recipes

Old Fashioned Candy Secrets and Recipes
If you love old fashioned candy, why not try making some yourself. These candymaking secrets, recipes and techniques come straight from the original antique
Christmas Plum Pudding and Figgy Pudding Recipes
An old English Victorian tradition, steamed plum and figgy pudding right out of a Dickens novel. Here are the authentic recipes straight out of vintage and

Buy This Book (to make your Christmas happier) and help someone else too! 

Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas

A 68 page e-book

Your Purchase Goes to Help an Injured College Student
Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas, Decorating & Tips
This 68 page eBook is packed with fresh ideas for anyone who loves Christmas, making gifts, decorating their home and saving money. Co-authored by eHowers, Shirley Philbrick and Pam Irie, (Shirley from Maine and Pam in Hawaii) representing the furthest U.S. states East and West.

They have never met but their styles are complimentary. What developed between them resulted in Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas, Decorating & Tips - All Under $15. The reason behind this eBook%u2026.well, they share an "off-the-beaten-path" outlook towards life and live it with a certain style that is often eclectic and makes use of unusual and recycled materials or those found in nature. It seemed a natural progression for their mutual interests.

How the eBook came to be is yet another story. Shirley's daughter, a young college student, sustained a devastating leg injury in an automobile accident in September 2009 which brought the ebook production to a temporary halt. Inspired by Shirley's daughter's courage in pushing forward with her life and facing her fears head on, we fast forward four weeks later to a finished product. It is with hope this book will prove as inspirational to you as a young woman's courage is to the authors. Please note: 100% of the proceeds from this e-book go towards ongoing medical expenses for Shirley's daughter. For more info, check out Shirley's blog.

Collecting Antique Christmas Ornaments

Finding the Value of Vintage Christmas Items

Guidebooks for antique Christmas ornaments and decorations

Christmas brings a month of nostalgia as we remember happy times with our family over the years. Saving a family Christmas decoration to bring out each year keeps us connected with our family traditions. I found a small church that lighted up. It was white vinyl with a steeple and a red roof. It was just like one that my grandparents used to have. How sad I felt when it warped from the heat in our attic over one summer. It wasn't the monetary value of the small decoration but the connection it gave me to my family's past.
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Have a Merry Little Christmas

My Christmas Memory Essays

A Tree Decked with Memories by Virginia Allain
Take time at Christmas to savor the decorating process. Every piece on my Christmas tree has some little story or memory attached to it.
Homemade Christmas by Virginia Allain
I write about Christmas memories from my childhood.

Related Pages on Squidoo

Other old-fashioned holidays

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Let Us Know That You Dropped By...

  • Frischy Dec 13, 2011 @ 10:06 am | delete
    I enjoyed this lens very much! A great way to get into the Christmas spirit!
  • love4free Dec 8, 2011 @ 3:03 pm | delete
    Hi Virginia, what a lovely old Christmas lens. Please feel free to check out my vintage Christmas pins :) Thanks! Merry Christmas.
  • nancycarol Oct 1, 2011 @ 5:47 pm | delete
    Even in the 70s, my kids and I worked on painting wooden Christmas ornaments together. When they were dry, we put touches of glue and glitter in strategic areas. When they were on the tree, it was hard to tell what glowed the most, the ornaments or the kids' faces. We also made cookies and candy together. Wonderful memories brought back by this lens. Thanks for sharing.
  • scarlettohairy Aug 26, 2011 @ 9:54 pm | delete
    Oh, I love all of these vintage pictures and want to try some of your Christmas candy recipes! Great lens.
  • Pinkchic18 Mar 21, 2011 @ 3:23 pm | delete
    Very nice lens here, well done!
  • familystorykeeper Jan 3, 2011 @ 12:37 am | delete
    Lots of wonderful Christmas Memories in this lens. I enjoyed reading it.
  • ChrisDay Jan 1, 2011 @ 12:58 am | delete
    Nice!
  • darciefrench Dec 25, 2010 @ 12:53 pm | delete
    Merry Christmas every day!
  • OhMe Dec 25, 2010 @ 9:42 am | delete
    Oh wow, this is such a "feel good" lens and I sure picked the perfect day to read it. Wonderful. Love your Intro photo.
  • maplesyrup Dec 24, 2010 @ 10:10 pm | delete
    I have fond memories of Christmas from when I was a child. Things were very different back then. All our family and extended family used to get together at my aunt's house for a huge feast. Today everyone is spread out all over and it just isn't the same. But at least we can still hang on to the memories.. I enjoyed reading your lens, it brought me back to that period in time.
  • vallain Dec 25, 2010 @ 7:54 am | delete
    MapleSyrup - You might want to turn some of those Christmas memories into essays or make Squidoo lenses to preserve them. My lens on Writing Triggers for Family Memories has some memory prompts to get your started.
  • awakeningwellness Dec 13, 2010 @ 12:40 pm | delete
    I would love an old fashioned Christmas without all the commercialism we have today, just a return to the simpler ways sounds wonderful!
  • blue22d Dec 3, 2010 @ 9:32 pm | delete
    Very nice lens. I love some of the old fashion themes....especially the beautiful postcards they had in the 30s and 40s. Also, the bubble lights,which I got a string of this year.
  • sheilamarie Dec 3, 2010 @ 12:38 am | delete
    I love an old-fashioned Christmas! Thanks for your ideas and stories.
  • mich1908 Dec 2, 2010 @ 9:44 am | delete
    Christmas is such a lovely time of the year. Nowadays it's way too commercialised. Your lense on an old-fashioned Christimas is just beautiful.
  • eclecticeducation Oct 19, 2010 @ 1:02 pm | delete
    Love it! Christmas is such a fun time of year. You have some great ideas on here to make it extra special.
  • lollyj Dec 21, 2009 @ 4:09 pm | delete
    What a great lens!! Thanks so much for visiting my Christmas 1916 lens and leaving a comment so I could find you. You advised me to put such memories in a book. I did that a few years ago in a book about my grandma's life, My Name is Esther Clara.
    5-fave- and lensrolled to my lenses about the good old days.
  • kiwisoutback Nov 10, 2009 @ 7:15 pm | delete
    Nice work! I agree, Christmas is way too commercial. It would be great for it to regress back to "the good old days."
  • wyrm11268 Oct 31, 2009 @ 12:51 pm | delete
    Hi Virginia, Love your lens and have picked up a few good ideas.
    I enjoyed looking at your book on blurb and voted for you - good luck!
  • SPhilbrick Oct 25, 2009 @ 9:14 pm | delete
    Virginia, this is a wonderful lens! I've bookmarked it to read some more of the pieces and I have a friend who will be interested so I'm sending it on !

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This Happy Snowman page written by

vallain

I'm Virginia Allain, a retired librarian. Now I devote myself to writing, photography and designing books to self-publish. Having fun!

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