Since I love to share vintage photos, I thought it would be fun to share some of my own “retro” holiday pics. It’s kind of a random collection—most of the albums back home in Michigan at my parents’ house—but here are a handful of my memories!
We start in San Diego, California. That’s where I was born. We lived there til I was in the second grade and then we moved to Michigan. Aww, look it’s meee and my pretty mama.
I’m wearing an awesome pink dress that was hand knit by my godmother Tante Judy, who was super crafty. I believe we are at my grandma’s house here. On the left is my Uncle John and my cousin Lisa.
I’m pretty sure this next one is the same year, but at our own apartment at Married Student Housing, at the University of California, San Diego. That tinsel is very German—although I noticed it on the tree at my grandma’s house (in the first photo), so maybe it was popular in general in the 70s. Do you remember tinsel on your tree back in the day?? I rarely see it….in fact, don’t know if they even sell it anymore. Hmmm.
In the background you can see my Top Favorite Christmas Album of All Time—The Jackson 5 Christmas Album. We still have it and I listen to it every year! Michael Jackson singing “Up On the Housetop” is my all-time favorite.
Christmas morning, my first little desk! I loved that awesome dolly carriage in the background too. Let’s get a closer look:
See? Told ya I was smitten with my carriage! This is later in the day, and I’m all dolled up. Check out the cool Playskool giraffe in the background. I sooo wanted one of those for Wolfie when he was little, but they were going for a bundle on eBay
I got the shutterbug early! Here I am with my little Fisher-Price Camera.
I love this next photo. My mom looks like a modern day hipster here, with her groovy fur hat and cool coat. I’m holding Pinkie, my little pink elephant. My godmother (she of the craft hand-knit pink dress) made him for me and he had these amazing psychedelic fabric ears. We’re at Balboa Park in San Diego.
My mom has great style and I have always loved the little outfits she dressed me in—check out these red velveteen overalls with the heart bib! I even had red hearts on my lil blue suede shoes.
I have to confess though, I was such a girlie girl I hated to wear pants. I was allll about the dresses. In fact, my mom reminded me, “It was SO hard to get you into that little outfit!” I do seem to remember that I was pleased by the red velvet trim on my ruffly shirt. Hmmm. OK, here we are at my Tante Anneliese’s house (my mom’s sister).
The year was 1973, and I got a little red headed Blythe doll AND the Barbie townhouse. Twas an excellent year of presents for wee Alexandra! Those are my three cousins in the back Danny, Rudi and Jimmy. Danny and Rudi were rockin’ the long California Boy hair.
After we went to Tante Anneliese’s house we would scoot over to my grandma’s house (my dad’s mom). Here we are. And oooh look what I just noticed is in my hand:
EMERALD THE WITCH! Remember, from my Creepy Cool Dollies post?? I was fairly certain I had an Emerald doll, but honestly thought it might just be wishful thinking. Proof positive I had her!
OK, now we travel across the country to Flint, Michigan. This is Christmas Eve, which we always celebrated with a night of music/singing and some tasty little finger foods. We also got to open up presents that were sent to us from relatives (packages from Germany and California).
Look how adorable my mom is in her plaid, maxi dress—there are strawberries appliques on the collar. Cuteness! That chair on the left was from a little kinder set my folks picked up in German (it had a matching table that  believe we are using as a small buffet!). The table and chairs were covered in a cool vinyl/plastic that had hot pink, red and orange flowers on them. The best part was (Dottie, are you listening??) I HAD MATCHING CLOGS! Oh yeah…..
These pictures totally make me smile. Check out how fun my parents are cuttin’ a rug Christmas eve! I look at our little house and there’s hardly any furniture. My dad was a young college professor and it’s not like he made a bundle, but as kids we were never aware that times might have been tight here and there. My parents are awesome.
And finally, this is my mom with our dog Flockie (loosely translated it means “little snowflake” in German). I always loved this photo of her. She is wearing a velveteen gaucho suit, with a velveteen vest. I remember thinking she looked so glamorous with her Charlie’s Angels hair! I was always very pleased and proud that I had a “pretty mama”. Growing up in Michigan in the 70s, most of the mom’s wore polyester stretch pants and had androgynous short hair cuts. Not my mom. My mama had style!
So that’s my little trip down memory lane. I’ll have to try and get some more photos when I go back home over the holidays!
Oh, and if you liked this here bloggy, won’t you please clicky below to vote for Modern Kiddo on the Top Mommy blogs? It takes two seconds (just click the brown banner below to register a vote for Modern Kiddo! Easy peasy!).
And finally…..did you download my Retro Holiday Music Mix?? What did you think? (YES i’m totally fishing for compliments, haha…..) I’m plotting this weeks mix, so you’ll have another round of tasty vintage tunes to play while you are puttering around the house!
OK–I’m in love with yer Mama, she’s quite the looker and I love her blonde hair for the seventies!
I had that baby carriage and played the hell out of it!
We totally had tinsel on the tree in the seventies. But all of a sudden in the nineties my parents decided against it. But we have one old pack. I guess tinsel was also popular before WW2 and they stopped making it during WW2 because it went to making airplanes, etc.
Go seventies Alix!
we had tinsel one year but then we got cats and it was a no no because they eat it!
classic pics!!
aww such gorgeous photos. we have that long thin threadlike tinsel – i must take a pic once our tree is up. your parents look awesome 🙂
We didn’t have tinsel–we had silver garland! Big ropy stuff!
And I LOVE that heart jumper!
so cute! i love 70’s photos. we had tinsel in the 70’s then in the 80’s we got that big ropy stuff that rocket girl was talking about. i was at the thrift today and they had 3 packages of vintage tinsel in the christmas section!
we had the tinsel! my dad was NOT allowed to apply the tinsel to the tree, though. he would take big handfuls of it and place it in clumps all over. :o) ah, the memories of my childhood during Christmastime…the fake tree that was in such bad shape, it had to be anchored to the wall with a string to keep it from falling over, huge multi-colored lights, horrible grade school ornaments (a roll of Lifesavers with a cotton ball “Santa” head glued to the top!)…all made even more awesome by the multi-colored, striped shag carpeting of the living room. love the pics, Alix! your family looks fab!
Awww, you so like your mom.
We had tinsel as well ( on our Hanukkah bush/tree). The cat used to eat it and then had a rather festive tush for the next few weeks! Bet you can’t beat that one.
hahaha…..ewww. we had that happen once ages ago, when our cat ate the silver streamers on my bike handles, haha.
I never had tinsel but I remember taking the tree down at my grandma’s one year and she made me take each strand off and store it away for next year. Must’ve been a mentality for the WWII yrs or something!
Love the memories, love the toys, and especially love the clothes. Hearing you had a hard time getting into those overalls but now you love them makes me think I should fight Ingrid into cute stuff more often. Maybe some of it will stick!
thanks for sharing your xmas past…i love, love it!! i am also listening to your sweet christmas music download, and it is making me crave egg nog and sugar cookies for some reason…
btw, you were a super cute kid….and a very stylish momma!!