30 December 1956 “Christmas Gifts”

I know I have been on a sort of sabbatical from posting lately. I think the rush and excitement of Christmas left me not bothering with my computer to much, so I am rather late in sharing some Christmas gifts with you.
Here is Christmas morning. We forgot to snap a shot until we had already begun unwrapping. You can see Sophie, our little Italian Greyhound, has already been in her stocking and is happily chewing away on a treat from Santa. I chose, via the suggestions of my vintage magazines, to forgo simple green and red for wrapping. I chose Green and pink as a main theme and punctuated it with blues and browns.
Here is a little nosegay of ribbon flowers I made using the instructions I shared with you. This was for our Christmas swap this year at our family Christmas eve party. I made the vintage tag from an old image and used Hubby’s typewriter to type names on tags.
  Here I created a Christmas beach scene. It doesn’t look very appealing in this photo, but it was rather darling. I used glitter and glue to simulate sand and waves and made my own little clam shack. Here is a close up of the little house. What I did was scan some images I have from a book that reproduces early New England buildings that you cut out and create. They are HO scale if you want to use them in model railroads. What I did was scan it and then change the colors to light and bright colors like you find in these Mica Christmas village houses of the 1950’s. You can see the fun pastel shades and they are always covered in a clear form of glitter. So that is what I did. Next year, I may make my own village. If I do, I will share the plans with you. If you want to recreate this one, here is the full scale version I colored and is ready for printing. Just click on it and save and print. It actually has a little front and rear porch roof and railings and a little entranceway I did not add, but you could. I added glitter before I cut it out and glued it together. Just use Elmer's glue or homemade paste and an exacto knife. It is fairly easy to see how it goes together and put glue where you see the little dots. It all affixed to the lower right image with the yellow wood. Have fun if you make one! Change the colors up if you want. It is no longer HO scale, though, as I made it smaller for my package.
I thought I would share some of my lovely gifts with all of you. Now, much as a lady in 1956 would have done, all my gifts are not from 1956. I think, unless one was super up to date and modern, antiques and old things were just as appreciated in 1956 as today. In fact I have many books on collecting antiques printed in the 1950’s.
Rather I was in 1956 or today, I have always loved the 19th and earlier centuries. Here we see a lovely Paris Fashion plate from 1870’s (one of my favorite times for fashion) framed. It is old as is the frame. An actual antique little boy doll. A collection of Sir Walter Scott first printings and a little book by a 19th century Baroness. Hubby knows I am trying to brush up my French so I found these lovely French Novels and books in French. My French was always schoolroom French so my reading was much better than my speaking.
I was so excited to get this cookie press. I have been coveting one for ages. Now I can make proper Spritz cookies as well as other things. They are also great for making savories for cocktail parties or fun tea sandwich spreads.
Here is a good Spritz Cookie Recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Sift together the flour and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the egg yolks, almond extract and vanilla extract. Gradually blend in the sifted ingredients. Fill a cookie press with dough and shoot cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. If you like, decorate with sugar or sprinkles at this time.
3. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes in the preheated oven.

I was surprised to see atop some of my gifts from my Hubby, these darling little vintage pins. They were used in place of bows (he always has been a great wrapper of gifts) Here they are close up. I love wearing pins. They are such a fun Vintage accesory and are usually affordable. You can use it to pin a scar around your neck, decorate a collar or dress, even attach to your handbag to add a little swirl of style.I also received these wonderful vintage earrings in my stocking. They are made from actual shells and rimmed in gold. Aren’t they wonderful. These will look great at Summer parties or boating. As you may know I have a set of vintage champagne goblets that are antique with a platinum ring. Hubby found, at our local church antique shop, a complete set of wine and dessert glasses that match! I was thrilled to say the least.
And you all may know as well that for my Everyday dishes, I collect and use the Temporama form the 1950’s. I have been lusting after the coffee urn for the past two years here in the 1950’s but they are hard to come by and when they appear on eBay are always overpriced. I was happy to see that Gussie and Hubby went in on one for me for Christmas, I was excited! And Gussie got me a gravy boat AND the matching plate. I once had the boat, but broke it in our move, but never had the plate. The plate is important for drips. I also received a new butter dish that goes with my salt and pepper and sugar.
I also collect antique bird cages. I have always been fascinated by old ways of keeping pets, and vintage bird cages are wonderful to just display or keep plants in or Victorian stuffed taxidermy birds. Or, in some cases, even a real bird, as this one may be large enough for a canary.
I felt my appreciation of older things validated as being “very 1950’s” when after opening my vintage bird cage, I was thumbing through my 1956 December McCall’s I got for Christmas to find this page. A very similar bamboo bird cage is shown here in a display for home. I loved that is used orange as well, as I like to use orange in my home because of all the warm wood tones.
Well, I have had a wonderful Christmas and I hope all of you have done as well. I am getting excited and a bit nervous for the coming year. I still have not officially ‘launched’ my new 1957 project as yet. We shall see, we shall see…
Happy Homemaking all and Happy Coming New Year!