I went down a few rabbit holes while we were sick over the holidays, and found some examples of the Christmas decorations I grew up with.
I don't recall a lot of specialized or homemade tree ornaments. We had these shiny things, some of them globes and some bells, large and small. As a result, plain and simple ornaments can make me nostalgic.
I loved the color wheel! We had a black and white TV at the time, after all. My recollection is that ours had only three colors, green, blue, and red, but I might be wrong. After all, I also remember my very detailed and realistic toy Apollo Moon rocket with a capsule that actually shot into the air--and it turns out it wasn't very detailed or realistic.
(On the subject of toys, I did indeed get a bb gun, and I never shot my eye out.)
We had a green aluminum tree, which was all the rage in the 60s, and it looked just like the one on the left. After Christmas the branches went into paper sleeves, and it was all neatly boxed up. As I recall, my Grandma Nannie had a white one.
We also had the cardboard fireplace. In January one year, quaking with terror while doing a speech in front of the class, I related a tale of the cardboard chimney once falling on me, and got some laughs. It never happened. When my kids were little I bought another one, and it lasted several years.
Santa assembled our main toys for us, and left them in front of the tree. Once I got a model Starship Enterprise that lit up. Another time there was a train waiting, and once my brother and I awoke to find a Hot Wheels track winding its way through the living room. The best was probably when Santa dropped off two bicycles. Mine was a five speed with a banana seat.
Wait--maybe our tree is in a photo somewhere. And maybe you want to know what I looked like back then. I hope so, because it took me some digging to find this:
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That's Jeff on the left, Delbert (Dad) on the right, and me in the middle. You want to know something odd? I remember those shirts.
And as usual, find all our books here:
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"
Remember, any time you don't buy a book, my pine allergies break out.