Christmas 1957
Every year my family sent out lots of cards at Christmas time and received many in return. In the photo above, there are over 90 cards on our living room wall. Mama always like to display them festively, doing something different with them annually.
Candles and bells were my parents’ favorite illustrations on Christmas cards. Those seemed to have been among the most popular depictions in the 1940s and 1950s.
I associate them with my parents and because of the fond memories of happy and simpler times, candles and bells are some of my favorites symbols of Christmas, too.
The fondness for this tradition is evident is this passage from Chapter 3 of Miss Read’s cozy tale, A Christmas Mouse:
“Mary sat down thankfully and drew the packet of tags towards her. The presents were destined for neighbours, and the tags seemed remarkably juvenile for the elderly couples who were going to receive the baskets. Father Christmas waved from a chimney pot, a golliwog danced a jig, two pixies bore a Christmas tree, and a cat carried a Christmas pudding. Only two tags measured up to Mary’s requirements, a row of bells on one and a red candle on the other. Ah well, she told herself, someone must make do with the pixies or the cat, and when you came to think of it the tags would be on the back of the fire this time tomorrow, so why worry? She wrote diligently.”
This post is linked to Vintage Christmas Monday ~5 at Anything Goes Here.
carla-at-home 
What a lovely tie in with the story! And a great card display! My mom also got creative with how she displays our cards!
Thank you for participating in Vintage Christmas Monday!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
xo Joan, your hostess
Thank you, Joan. It was fun.
Oh, the reference from Miss Read made my day! I recently found a used Miss Read Christmas: Village Christmas and The Christmas Mouse book! I thought I’d read all the Miss Read there was to read, but I’m pleased to find this one and don’t remember reading it. I LOVE Miss Read!
Thank you for stopping by.
Miss Read is one of my favorite authors and I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Recently I saw a comment on Coffee, Tea, Books and Me about a new Miss Read Christmas book; I think it’s called Christmas at Thrush Green. It’s available on Amazon.
Hopefully there’ll be at least one Miss Read post in January here.
I absolutely love what your Mama did with all of those Christmas cards! That’s so creative, and if I had a big wall like that, I would love to try doing it too!
Happy VCM and Merry Christmas!
Carol
Thank you. We always enjoyed it.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you for sharing your beautiful photo of all the wonderful Christmas cards… my mama always displayed all of ours too and each one was so special as back then everyone wrote a heartfelt message inside… after Christmas my little sister and I would take turns picking the ones we each got to keep… thanks for bringing back special memories for me too! Merry Christmas! Bisous… Julie Marie
I’m glad you stopped by here.
Oh, how I wished we had saved some of our cards from back then. We’ve kept several that we’ve saved through our 36 years of marriage, and they are dear to me, especially those from loved ones who are no longer with us. That’s a great idea, which I intend to borrow.
Merry Christmas.