29 November 2009

CHRISTMAS BOOK REVIEW: Christmas Memories

subtitled "Gifts, Activities, Fads, and Fancies, 1920s-1960s"
by Susan Waggoner

In 2004 Waggoner released a nostalgic book called It's A Wonderful Christmas, using magazine ads, photos, illustrations, and other media to show us Christmas past in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. This was followed by a similar book about toys from the 1920s to the 1960s. Now in this third book she presents more nostalgia, this time starting at "the Roaring 20s" and continuing through "the swinging 60s." Once again advertisements and illustrations, elaborated with narration, prices from the decade, and memories of those who lived through the era are well mixed in this full-color delight. The sophisticated colors of 1920s decorating, the make-do attitude of the 1930s, the can-do attitude of the World War II years and the boom in the late 1940s, the baby boomer years of the 1950s, and the sleek novelties of the 1960s—like aluminum Christmas trees and plastic decorations—are all presented. A must for fans of old-fashioned celebrations and Christmas nostalgia.

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