For this year’s Christmas Countdown, I spent the month reveling in the nostalgic joy of mid-century modern / “space age” holiday designs. These are the holiday decorations that became popular in the 1950s and stayed that way when my brothers and I were kids in the 1960s and into the 1970s.
🎄✨🎅🏻 24 Days to Christmas:“Evergleam” silver tinsel trees were introduced in 1959 by the Aluminum Specialty Company of Manitowoc WI …
🎅🏻 ⭐️ 🎄 23 Days to Christmas … Downtown retailers decorated Main Streets into Holiday Wonderlands (Dubuque IA) …
🎅🏻 ✨ 🎅🏻 22 Days to Christmas – These playful Starry-Eyed Santa ceramics were produced by Holt-Howard (NY) debuted in the late 1950s …
✨ 21 Days to Christmas – These 1950s ‘Pixie Elves’ originated in Japan and were sold mostly through dime stores. The bendable ‘knee huggers’ went on trees, mantels, and wreaths – later inspiring the ‘Elf on a Shelf’ phenomenon …
🎄 20 Days to Christmas – If you are hosting a holiday party this weekend, why not create a festive, 1960s styrofoam/toothpick “tree” to serve up some shrimp or weenies?
🎅🏻 19 Days to Christmas – Play Santa and pose by the glow of a cardboard fireplace (JCPenney, 1966). My brother & I had a fireplace like this in our room when we were in grade school.
🌟 18 Days to Christmas – “Ice-Glo” tree lights were introduced by GE in 1957. The frosted, crystaline coating produced a warm, colorful glow, in contrast to their frozen look …
🎅🏻☃️🎁 17 Days to Christmas – Gurley holiday candles were sold in dime stores in the 1950s/60s. Their nostalgic design, bright colors, and collectible appeal keep them cherished seasonal decorations today.
🕯️😇🕯️ 16 Days to Christmas – Swedish Angel Chimes became popular in the USA in the 1950s. The candle-powered carousels spin gently & create a soft, festive jingling at Christmas. We had one at our house when I was a kid – it had little circus clowns to replace the angels for using at birthdays.
🎅🏻 15 Days to Christmas – These rooftop blow mold Santa & Reindeer displays have become popular collectibles, although not super expensive. These are from the 1964 JCPenney Christmas Catalog …
🎄☃️ 🎄 14 Days to Christmas – Lefton ceramics introduced this festive “Holly & Berries” collection in 1953. It became wildly popular – deserving a full page in the 1959 Sears Christmas Catalog …
🌟 13 Days to Christmas – Before blow-molds & yard inflatables, families cut & painted new-fangled plywood into festive shapes like Santas, reindeer, Dickens, and nativity figures.
🚀 🚁 ✈️ 12 Days to Christmas – Lots of clever ways for “Modern” Santa to make his midnight rounds on these Christmas Cards …
🎄 11 Days to Christmas – Strand by strand, Moms & Dads put marvelous “angel hair” tinsel on the trees. The look peaked in the 1950s …
🎄 10 Days to Christmas – Miniature electric lights were a popular innovation that began replacing the bigger C7/C9 bulbs in the 1960s. They came in all styles of novelty & figural varieties …
🎄 9 Days to Christmas – Designers pushed to “modernize” the Christmas tree in the 1950s/60s. For the most part, the results were not good …!
🕯️ 8 Days to Christmas – These “sugar frosted” tumbler or jar candles were very popular at dime stores in the 1960s & 1970s. You can hardly find them for sale any more, although they are at a lot of garage sales!
☃️🏠❄️ 7 Days to Christmas – Tiny, electric “Putz” houses peaked in popularity before & after WWII. The name comes from the German word “Putzen”, which means “To shine, or decorate”. The rooftops & yards sparkle with mica, a pearlescent mineral.
🎄 6 Days to Christmas – Ceramic Christmas Trees were introduced in the 1960s by the Atlantic Mold Company of Akron, Ohio. There are many varieties, including this one crafted by my wife’s Mom about 40 years ago. It has an “O Christmas Tree” mechanical music box inside.
🧦 5 Days to Christmas – These red felt, printed Christmas stockings were popular in post-WWII homes of the late 1940s & 1950s. Hanging your stockings wasn’t as elaborate of an affair back then.
✨🌟✨ 4 Days to Christmas – Blow mold decorations were introduced by Empire Plastics of Tarboro NC in 1948. Their serene Christmas Nativity set seemed appropriate for today – the Sunday before Christmas …
✨ 🕯️ ✨ 3 Days to Christmas – Candoliers like these brought the traditional candelabras into the electric age. They were introduced by NOMA of NYC for Christmas 1948 …
🫧🎄🫧 2 Days to Christmas – Colorful, playful, Bubble Lights were introduced by innovative NOMA in 1946. The bubbling motion action is created with the bulbs heat and colored methylene chloride.
✨🎄✨1 Day to Christmas – Beautiful, glass Shiny-Brite ornaments are the zenith of midcentury Christmas décor. The stylized trees, lanterns, bells, and “UFOs” are especially collectible.
Previous Year Countdowns:
- 2024: Classic Christmas TV Countdown
- 2023: Christmas Cities Around The World
- 2022: Peanuts Christmas Countdown
- 2021: Christmas Album Illustrations
- 2020: Christmas Catalog Offerings
- 2019: Christmas Magazine Illustrations
- 2018: Christmas Classic Toy Countdown
- 2017: Classic Christmas Ads
MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🎅🏻🎄✨❄️🎉
MrFireStation 
Nice memories from growing up. I lived in one town in the Midwest and it had a town square that looked like the one from your photo. Pennys, Sears, Western Auto and Murphy’s 5 and 10 were there and they decorated the square for Christmas. Most of your purchases were catalog based. If only they had stayed out of suburban malls and taken their catalog business online faster, there wouldn’t be an Amazon.
We had a neighbor with the aluminum tree that had a spotlight with a motor driven color wheel.
My family had the candle angel chime, the themed jar candles, the Putz Houses that we setup around a toy train, and the homemade ceramic Christmas Tree.
Here is a bad memory. Christmas Lights that were wired in series, where if one of the lights went out, they all went out. You had to trial and error through all the lights until you found the burned out one.
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