On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
JanieM and cope and HinTN and evap Christmas pics, so far!
More great photos from cope!
This is a Christmas picture from 1965 in our Illinois home. It is rare in that all 5 of us kids are (mostly) in one shot. What I’m holding looks like some sort of tape recorder/player but I have no memory of it. Ironically, looking at the holes in my socks, the white socks on the floor were the present I opened just before this one.
In 1970, my family moved to Colorado where my brothers and sisters and their families have been ever since. I moved our family to Florida from Colorado in 1989 but this month, my wife and I are moving back to Colorado where the five of us “kids” will all be back together again.
Another from cope.
This is from Christmas, 1962 and in it, I sit in the background chewing pizza while one of my brothers and one of my sisters work on the tree. Our tradition at the time was to put the tree up on Christmas Eve and order out pizza while decorating it. The tree would stay up for 12 days and then come down.
These are JanieM.
My mother’s annotation: “Picture snapped just as Janie caught sight of the Christmas tree” (after a nap).
JanieM:
Mom again: “Janie giving the tree further scrutiny.”
HinTN then.
HinTN now.
When I was sorting through my mom’s stuff I found a series of photos of my brother and I with Santa. The photos are quite faded, I picked the two that were easiest to see.
These are from Dec 1960 (I’m pretty sure that is right). So I am 2.5 in the pictures, my brother is two years older. Yes, I’m the girl :)
This is the next in the series. In those days, my mom sewed all of our clothes apart from socks and underwear. Yes, she made this dress and the dress in the previous photo.
These are from Dec 1961 (I’m pretty sure that is right). So I am 3.5 in the pictures, my brother is two years older.
sab
All my childhood Christmas pictures are me trying not to cry because department store Santa was so scary.
raven
My friends offer an Old-Time Pirate Christmas
JanieM
Socks with holes, tinsel, dresses homemade by Mom — hallmarks of that era for me as well.
We have pictures of my son with Santa at 3 months and 15 months. In the first one he’s happy as a clam. In the second he’s crying. I think that was the last time we took him (or them) to see Santa — not because of the crying, but probably because after we moved to Maine we didn’t have a Santa nearby to take them to. My son went back to being a complete “hail fellow well met” with strangers after he got through the stranger danger phase. He’d chat and happily walk off with anyone, human or canine, if you didn’t keep an eye on him.
JPL
Tinsel and candy canes made Christmas special.
JPL
@JanieM: My son and DIL went to great lengths trying to teach the 3-year-old that Santa was a good guy. Last year they rode a GA polar express train. I asked Carter how it was, and he responded that Santa was still a monster. This year I purchased an inflatable Santa and Carter’s baby brother ran up to it with smiles on his face saying Santa.
There go two miscreants
I am so envious of you folks who have pix from your childhood Christmases; AFAIK, only one of me survived, and it is faded worse than the worst ones in this post. Despite my envy, I am enjoying this series a lot!
mrmoshpotato
Do we send out a search party for the lower half of HinTN’s face (and the mustard)? Can finding both be our Christmas miracle? 😁
zhena gogolia
@sab: Yeah, I fucking hated Santa.
sab
@zhena gogolia: Our parents tried so hard to make Christmas special, and all it did was scare us.
stinger
Loving these photos!
I’ve said it before, but cope, if you and your sibs are friends, you are entering the best time of your life! Also, in the top picture, love the kid rocking the ruby slingback heels and coordinating plaid pajama bottoms.
Although I’ve never been as good a seamstress as evap‘s mom, I’m so tempted to dust off the sewing machine and make myself a pair of plaid high-waisted wide-legged suspender pants. Those look so stylish and comfortable. I’d never look as cute as JanieM, though.
And I love how HinIN and sibling, between them, had a full set of choppers!
Blizzard conditions continue here, even though the snow has stopped falling, and have resulted in the cancellation of radiation treatments both yesterday and today, and probably Christmas Eve dinner at my best friend’s house tomorrow and Chinese lunch with my sister on Sunday. I live out in the country, and even if I could get to a plowed highway, travel is officially Not Advised.
zhena gogolia
@stinger: I didn’t notice the slingback heels! And yes, those pants are killer!
I hope you have a lovely holiday despite the blizzard.
WaterGirl
@stinger: Thanks for pointing out the slingback heels – I hadn’t caught that and it’s the best part of the photo!
WaterGirl
Thanks so much to everyone who sent in pics! Way fewer people sent in holiday pics this year, so we went with one week instead of two. For me, at least, seeing these pics dusts off a lot of happy memories.
For me, these last few months have been election-election-election-runoff, and then holy fuck Christmas is in 2 weeks. Maybe I’m not the only one?
Hoping that next year we can get enough to go back to two weeks!
MelissaM
I noticed the heels and I may have had a pair in light purple. I do remember wearing the matching plastic earrings to school (kindergarten or first grade) once, but I think I was shamed out of continuing. I’ve gone for smaller earrings ever since, though I’ve been told my personality deserves bigger earrings.
stinger
@zhena gogolia: Thanks! It may be a 5-day “holiday” from all human contact, if the wind doesn’t die down a little!
I hope yours is good!
laura
@stinger: I, too, have questions about those shoes. Cope, please ask your sister about them and report back out- I imagine they were a very memorable gift.
These series of photos are so lovely. We have none. Our parents didn’t have the money for a camera, let alone film and processing so we are left with just our memories of when we were wee. I will forever remember the Christmas when we were dropped off at the theater after dinner with gramma chaperoning to see the Godfather while all the adults stayed home playing scrabble. We ranged in age from 11 or 12 down to 6, so there’s that. Oh how I wished for a big Italian wedding, but not so much a shoot out at the parkway toll booth.
WaterGirl
@MelissaM: Was there a thing called princess heels? Little short heels, not like the pointy heels that could put someone’s eyes out?
Whatever those were called, they were a big Joe Biden deal. They were so grown-up, and they looked so cute with our anklet socks.
laura
@WaterGirl: might those be kitten heels?
WaterGirl
@laura: I may have mentioned before that we had a movie theater right across the street from our apartment. So whenever we felt like it we just walked across the street and spent the whole day watching movies. You could walk in on the middle of the movie, watch it to the end, and then start over again.
I don’t even remember paying, maybe because we were the “kids across the street”? But we did know kids who would sneak in the back door of the theater.
laura
@WaterGirl: sheer heaven!
stinger
WaterGirl, my recollection is that princess heels are low, maybe an inch-and-a-half, but fairly wide for stability, nearly as wide as the shoe side-to-side. Like training “heels”, suitable for girls–with or without anklets! Whereas kitten heels are also about 1.5 inches high but round and narrow, like very short spike heels. Suitable for women and older teenagers with strong ankle muscles. (I’ve worn only flats and athletic shoes and snow boots for many years.)
Sending little kids to see The Godfather??? Oh my!
MelissaM
@WaterGirl: I know mine came in a dress-up set in the 70s (the ruby ones look a little earlier than mine.) The earrings were a purple clip-on button with a dangly purple diamond shape. The heels may have had an elastic sling-back. Of course, I couldn’t walk in them, and to me they weren’t as important as the earrings. I don’t remember what else might have been in there, but bangle bracelets would seem apropos.
stinger
@MelissaM: Loving every image this conveys!
eclare
@laura: The adults played Scrabble while the kids saw The Godfather? That is bizarro world!
WaterGirl
@stinger: Yes, what I was thinking of as princess heels is exactly what you described.
We never had kitten heels when we were young.