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Here are some marvelous pictures of Christmas
past.
Click on each to enlarge.
An absolutely
charming Christmas scene, undated but most likely early 1900s based
on the style of the house and the children's clothing. This
marvelous photograph is from David Neely's collection, and was
restored by Lee Lowry. Since no power lines are evident in the
scene, it is probable that the freshly cut tree will be lit with
candles. One can easily imagine how beautiful the tree will look
decorated in the parlor. Lee has also rendered a
 colorized
version of this picture, which brings out more detail. This is a
larger file with a longer download time, but it is certainly worth
the wait. Look closely at the porch in this version, as you will be
able to see another child standing there as well. |
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I jokingly refer
to this photo as "The Happy Family at Christmas." A close look at
the picture will reveal that nobody really looks very happy, despite
the fact that they are obviously of above average means. Notice that
the ceiling light fixture is gas, and the tree is lit with candles.
Also notice that some of the branch tips have an ornament on them
that we would today use as a tree topper only. The room features
tall, papered ceilings and the base of the tree is secured in a very
interesting holder. This photo is from the collection of Marshall Gulbranson. Also included here is a restored and colorized version
of the photo, kindly provided by Lee Lowry. The colorized version
brings out a lot of detail not evident in the original picture. The
picture is undated, but is most likely late 1800s. |
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| Here is a
charming picture of a very old tradition-that of actually putting
the presents on the tree. Decorated only with a few
ornaments, garland and the presents, this 1896 photo clearly shows
the mittens, toys and games that Santa brought the night before. The
tree is unlit. |
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| This pictures
shows an impressively-sized feather tree, one of the first true
artificial trees used in America. Lit with candles, the well
decorated tree has several dolls and a toy piano, indicating that
the family children must all be girls. The picture is from the
collection of David Neely, and is from the very early 1900s. |
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| Here is another
interesting picture from the collection of Marshall Gulbranson, and
is from the very early 1900s. Notice the elaborate scene under
the tree, and the almost life size doll sitting between the children
at the bottom of the photo. The tree appears to be lit with exhaust
tipped carbon filament lamps, and sits on a covered table, a
practice typical of the times. |
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| This 1907
British postcard which was originally colorized shows a rather slender Santa with the Christmas
tree in his bag. A long standing early tradition in many homes both
in America and Great Britain, Santa would bring the tree with him on
Christmas Eve, where he would set it up, decorate it and load it
down with gifts to surprise the family on Christmas morning. The
tree in this scene is lit with candles. The excellent restoration of
this photograph was undertaken by Lee Lowry. |
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The back of this
1912 photograph states that it was "hand colored from life", meaning
the hand tinting was executed according to the colors of the actual
scene. Turn of the century photographers would often make notes
during an in-home picture session, so as to more accurately colorize
the picture after it was processed. In this case, the artist was a
bit over zealous in colorizing the packages beneath the tree, as
they were all wrapped in white paper with red ribbons-traditional in
the days before commercial wrapping paper was introduced by the
Hallmark company. This tree has no electric lighting... |
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| Circa 1938, this
photo shows a tree lit with C-6 Christmas lamps and is quite
sparsely decorated, typical of a late 30s tree in the United States.
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| Website visitor
Anna Bates shares this picture and memories of her mother with us.
Referring to their first aluminum Christmas tree, Anna writes: "I
still remember when Mom brought that thing home in a big cardboard
box. Permanent tree! When she pulled out that painted silver pole,
we laughed so hard we cried. Later that night we all stood in the
living room for the ritual of turning on the color wheel for the
first time. We stood there in amazement watching the tree turn red,
yellow --- then when blue came around a hushed "oooooooh" from all
of us. She was so proud of that thing. In this picture, she is
sitting next to her tree, wearing a matching aluminum corsage,
strappy sandals, huge rhinestone earrings to accentuate her dyed red
hair. I loved her so much. And to think I thought all that stuff
was tacky when I was a teenager! Her name was Nora Bates, and she
died from complications of Alzheimer's disease in April 2003. |
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