Ho! Ho! Ho! - 1. Chapter 1

This brings back memories of those magical childhood Christmas's, it makes you all warm and fuzzy.

Brings back all the childhood Christmas memories.

Quote

“Why on earth have you taken off your pyjama trousers?”

Eight years old is a little young to have discovered that!  ;–)

1950s UK would have still been suffering through rationing, right? Did that affect consumer goods (like trains) as well as food? My impression is that ‘50s England wasn’t affluent like the US was at the time either, having even up their colonies and rebuilding after the war…

My mother always referred to the non-strung strips of shiny stuff as tinsel. She would force us to hang individual strips on the tree one at a time. Because we were poor, the strips were collected off the tree for use the following year.

When I was growing up, we used to get the least expensive Douglas Fir available. When my mother started working in the late ‘70s there was more disposable income and we started to buy the much more expensive Noble Firs which had bigger gaps between layers of branches. Those spaces allowed ornaments to be more visible. We also shifted away from either the kid-safe styrofoam balls covered with shiny thread and the glass ball ornaments they tried to emulate to home-made or more rustic forms of ornaments (ie Northern European wooden or straw ornaments). For a while bread-dough ornaments were popular, but we threw them all away when bugs got into them while they’d been stored between seasons!

There are a lot more memories with the home-made ornaments than there were with commercial glass balls.  ;–)

2 hours ago, Ivor Slipper said:

Probably/possibly 'lametta' is a trade name for what s generally called tinsel. But, yes I recall collecting up those which weren't too deformed to use the following year.

The New Oxford American Dictionary definition of ‘tinsel’ differs from the definition in the Oxford Dictionary of English. What is unusual was that the definition didn’t have any reference to ‘chiefly American’ or ‘British’ as it does for other words with definitions that are dissimilar. Most commonly the entry is identical for both dictionaries. This suggests to me that there is slight difference in meaning between the two major variants of the language.  ;–)

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia page for ’Tinsel’ seems to have been primarily written by a Brit because, like the Oxford Dictionary of English, it defines the unthreaded strands as lametta (Apple’s US spellcheck doesn’t like the word).  ;–)

I don’t know what material our tinsel was made out of, but it seemed to be plastic-based. It was very light and bent easily. It is likely that my mother bought her tinsel in the ‘60s. Apparently lead foil tinsel was available through the ‘60s in the US, but the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) pushed a voluntary end to production and importation after Jan 1, 1972.

I was born in California and have only lived here and in Hawaii. My parents were both also born in California, but they met in Chicago. I’m guessing the tinsel reminded her of the ice and snow on the trees. Even as we were enjoying temperatures well above freezing!  ;–)

2 hours ago, Ivor Slipper said:

I suspect most people had ornaments that had been handed down or were hand made. I seem to remember some that were knitted.

Aside from the ones we made, my favorite Aunt made others that I still have. We had a crocheted wreath and a pair of crocheted mittens that she made. Back in the ‘80s, it was trendy to make reindeer out of clothes pins. Our tree also had felt animals and origami ornaments that I made. I see many of the same ones on my Aunt’s tree every year.  ;–)

When I was working, I used to give my coworkers ornaments that I made. Some years I made a dozen or more ornaments. I always enjoyed seeing them on their trees when I’d visit. Most of my coworkers only got one or two, but a few people I worked with for many years had a lot more!  ;–)

When I worked at Target, they had these flyers soliciting seasonal jobs at the store. There were stacks of them in Target red and white. We were supposed to be stuffing them into the bags, but most of us had stopped doing that. So in between customers, I’d fold & trim the rectangle into a square and fold cranes. They’d magically appear on the tree in the break room, a few at a time!  ;–)

Wonderful little tale, Ivor. I was greatly amused... thank you for that.   Cheers... Gary....

2 hours ago, Headstall said:

Wonderful little tale, Ivor. I was greatly amused... thank you for that.   Cheers... Gary....

Thanks, Gary - appreciate the comment.

11 hours ago, droughtquake said:

The New Oxford American Dictionary definition of ‘tinsel’ differs from the definition in the Oxford Dictionary of English. What is unusual was that the definition didn’t have any reference to ‘chiefly American’ or ‘British’ as it does for other words with definitions that are dissimilar. Most commonly the entry is identical for both dictionaries. This suggests to me that there is slight difference in meaning between the two major variants of the language.  ;–)

 

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia page for ’Tinsel’ seems to have been primarily written by a Brit because, like the Oxford Dictionary of English, it defines the unthreaded strands as lametta (Apple’s US spellcheck doesn’t like the word).  ;–)

 

I don’t know what material our tinsel was made out of, but it seemed to be plastic-based. It was very light and bent easily. It is likely that my mother bought her tinsel in the ‘60s. Apparently lead foil tinsel was available through the ‘60s in the US, but the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) pushed a voluntary end to production and importation after Jan 1, 1972.

 

I was born in California and have only lived here and in Hawaii. My parents were both also born in California, but they met in Chicago. I’m guessing the tinsel reminded her of the ice and snow on the trees. Even as we were enjoying temperatures well above freezing!  ;–)

 

Aside from the ones we made, my favorite Aunt made others that I still have. We had a crocheted wreath and a pair of crocheted mittens that she made. Back in the ‘80s, it was trendy to make reindeer out of clothes pins. Our tree also had felt animals and origami ornaments that I made. I see many of the same ones on my Aunt’s tree every year.  ;–)

 

When I was working, I used to give my coworkers ornaments that I made. Some years I made a dozen or more ornaments. I always enjoyed seeing them on their trees when I’d visit. Most of my coworkers only got one or two, but a few people I worked with for many years had a lot more!  ;–)

 

When I worked at Target, they had these flyers soliciting seasonal jobs at the store. There were stacks of them in Target red and white. We were supposed to be stuffing them into the bags, but most of us had stopped doing that. So in between customers, I’d fold & trim the rectangle into a square and fold cranes. They’d magically appear on the tree in the break room, a few at a time!  ;–)

I suspect lametta was very thin aluminum foil, but not certain. For me that word only applies to those strips. We did have other types of multi colored shiny lengths in varying widths which could be twisted to reflect better, which again I'd think were made from aluminum. Am unsure if we called these tinsel or just referred to them as tree decorations.

Thank you! What a happy story to read.

I notice that it is marked "in progress". Will there be more chapters to come? (No pun intended.)

2 hours ago, silentreader3 said:

Thank you! What a happy story to read.

 

I notice that it is marked "in progress". Will there be more chapters to come? (No pun intended.)

Thank you. Pleased to know that you enjoyed it.

The 'In Progress' was an oversight which I should go back and correct - unless I leave it open until next Christmas 😊

3 hours ago, Ivor Slipper said:

 

Thank you. Pleased to know that you enjoyed it.

 

The 'In Progress' was an oversight which I should go back and correct - unless I leave it open until next Christmas 😊

Oh !  :(

Well, to be honest, it felt like that was the natural conclusion of the story. Then again, I'd enjoy reading more, even if it means being patient for a year!  Thank you for sharing your work with us all.

Interesting how some things were similar while others differed.  Our tree went up the weekend before Christmas, always one bought from a tree farm, and decorated the same day.  Usually we had the old-style colored lights with large bulbs, and if one went out the whole string had to be tested, and you hooped you had the color bulb to match that one.  Yep tinsel too, shiny and droopy but we put it on in small clumps and it got tossed every year as it was tangled no matter how careful we tried.  Ornaments were colored glass in various shapes, some with indented sections with a scene painted in it to contrast with the main color, and others were one color or patterned.  It took me years to find a couple boxes of late 50s ones to go on my tree.  Our topper was a star, and we hung velour stockings on our fireplace too.

I remember my first train set, a larger gauge with two plastic tunnels and a big loop of track with a black transformer to run it.  I have a pic (black and white of course) of me playing with it while in my white undies the day I got it.  The next year I think I got a slot-car racing set.  Then the Hot Wheels hit and I got orange track and several cars.  My friend down the street got some too, and we'd set it up in his living room and race for ages.

Only thing that came close to those was my birthday present in '66 of a red Schwinn bike with chrome fenders and a chrome headlight!  That pic is in my Gallery.