Crank Up the Hi-Fi! // Alix’s Retro Holiday Mix Vol. 1, 2 & 3

Holiday Kiddo, ,

Christmas time is without a doubt my favorite time of year! It has been, ever since I was a little girl. I love the lights. I love decorations. I love the spirit of happiness. And I LOVE THE MUSIC! As a result, I have been collecting vintage Christmas records for ages—there is something about a holiday song played on a hi-fi that makes it even more festive. To this day two of my favorite albums are a Johnny Mathis Christmas and a Compilation from Sears, because they remind me of the music my parents would play for us when we were kiddos.

Back in the day, Christmas music was soooo much more fun and interesting! Nowadays I feel like all we get are the latest R&B pop star slaughtering an old carol with vocal acrobatics. Back in the day, people actually wrote new Christmas songs or did innovative versions of old standards. There were also TONS of compilations featuring all the stars of the day!

Over the past years I have wanted to digitize my vinyl as a way to preserve it—and so I could share it with others. I’ve transformed a fair amount of my albums to MP3 and have managed to build a fun library of vintage vinyl.

Without further ado, here are the last three mixes I’ve put up!  They’re an eclectic mix, excellent for tree trimmings, fire side evenings and cocktail parties.  I hope they add a little cheer to your house this holiday season! Just give Modern Kiddo a nod if someone says, “Wow, where did you get this amazing holiday mix from??” Hee.

Please note: the mixes are for personal use ONLY. each mix becomes password protected after December, so grab ’em now!

ALIX’S Retro Holiday Mix VOL 1

It’s all smooth (and quirky) cocktails-by-the-fire kinda music. Some highlights?

“Too Fat for the Chimney” — Gisele Mackenzie
“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” — Loretta Young
“A Christmas Song” — Shawn Phillips (a dixieland cowboy xmas)
“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”— The Partridge Family

DOWNLOAD ALIX RETRO HOLIDAY MIX VOL 1 HERE.

ALIX’S Retro Holiday Mix VOL 2
A tad more lively than Vol 1. Some highlights:

“We Wish You A Merry Christmas” — The Border Brass
“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” — The Jackson Five
“I’m Gonna Lasso Santa Claus” — Brenda Lee
“Hey! Santa Claus”—  The Moonglows

DOWNLOAD ALIX’s RETRO HOLIDAY MIX, VOL. 2 HERE

ALIX’S Retro Holiday Mix VOL 3
Last year I continued with the retro 50s/60s but dabbled into some funky 70s. Some highlights:

“Jingle Bells” —Sammy Davis Jr.
“A Funky Christmas” — J. Hines and the Boys
“Santa, How Come Your Eyes Are Green (When Last Year They Were Blue)” — Louis Prima
“Senor Santa Claus” — Jim Reeves

DOWNLOAD ALIX’S RETRO HOLIDAY MIX VOL. 3 HERE

ENJOY my friends!

The Kitschy Chic of Space Age Aluminum Trees.

Holiday Kiddo

Every year Greg and I debate….should we get a real tree or put up our vintage aluminum tree? Of course nothing beats a real tree. The crisp, fresh pine smell is so wonderful. And having a real tree in your home is so special. But there is something undeniably magical about those old silver trees.

A product of the late 1950s, when “space age” was all the rage, aluminum trees were seen as an exciting, modern “permanent” interpretation of Christmas tree.

“Aluminum trees were first manufactured by the Aluminum Specialty Company in Manitowoc, Wis. It is estimated that this company made more than four million trees in a 10-year period. ”Shredded” aluminum strips were wrapped by hand around the wire branch and then fluffed to spread out the aluminum needles.” — Aluminum Association.

The story goes that back in December 1958, Tom Gannon, a sales manager for the Aluminum Specialty Company, was visiting Chicago when he noticed a unique looking, hand made silver tree as part of a holiday display in the store window. He was transfixed and actually brought this display tree back to his company. There, he had engineer Richard Thomsen lead the effort to produce a better, cheaper version for display at the American Toy Fair in March 1959. The trees were a smash and as a result, Specialty Aluminum took a gamble and produced hundreds of thousands of silvery trees just in time for the 1959 holidays. The rest, as they say, is history!


image: rachel carr

These sparkley silver trees were available in a wide range of sizes—as small as 8 inches all the way up to 7 footers. Some trees even had silver pom poms on the ends to give them a fuller look. Because you didn’t want to risk electrical shock by putting Christmas lights on your aluminum tree, the color wheel spotlight was introduced. These groovy spotlights had a rotating four-color plastic wheel which projected a new color on the tree as it spun— from red to green to yellow to blue.



{see the entire pamphlet here}

{I love that couple….as if the aluminim silver tree weren’t enough—they tinseled this bad boy within an inch of its life!}


When Wolfie was a baby, we thought he would be transfixed by the slowly spinning silver tree—and indeed he was! The color wheel gave it that lovely shimmer and the whole effect is pretty fabulous.  (Hee….look how little he was back then!)

So what’s the verdict folks? Would you ever have an artificial tree in your home? (Silver or otherwise?) Is it space age cool or ticky tacky?? I still love ours….but I have to confess, nothing beats a “real” tree to me.


MK Rewind:: A Very Rankin Bass Christmas

Best of Dottie, Holiday Kiddo, , , ,

Believe it or not, these two guys had one of the biggest impacts on our childhood holiday memories.

Meet Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, the mastermind behind some of your favorite Christmas moments in front of the TV. These two gents bought us such delightful characters as:

I loves me some Yukon Cornelius!  My friend Jen and I joked that he was the uber cartoon dream husband.  Knew the importance of gold/silver for jewelry and was kind to animals. I loved his little team of mismatched doggies too!

And don’t forget about the most dapper snowman around!

Remember skinny Santa? EAT, PAPA, EAT!

I don’t know about you, but I was really frightened of the Abominable Snowman as a kid! That was some scary stuff to a five year old!

I so would have taken every toy on that island! A dolly for Suzy just broke my heart every time I saw her!

Oh, Hermie!  You made me actually want to go to the dentist! And of course RUDOLF!

I know not everyone is into letting their kids watch TV, but personally, I don’t consider Rankin Bass Christmas specials to be TV as much as an irresistible holiday memory in the making. Right up there with watching the Nutcracker or making Christmas cookies.

Arthur Rankin and his buddy Jules Bass came up with this wonderful animation technique they called “animagic” which included stop animation with these sassy dolls combined with cel animation for special backdrops like snowflakes.  He optimistically called his new animation technique “Animagic”. And it was more than enough to turn a Christmas novelty song and a felt-covered, lightbulb-nosed reindeer puppet into the most amazing hour on TV in December.

“Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, the flagship Rankin/Bass production, remains the longest-running, highest-rated special ever aired on US network television. The special has appeared on one of the broadcast networks every year since its debut on NBC’s “General Electric Fantasy Hour” in 1964, routinely landing near the top of the Nielsen Ratings Top 10 — a feat unparalleled in television history.

Oh, I forgot one other thing that made “animagic” so, well, magical! Not pixie dust. Just hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of work slowly shifting the dolls around to make them move. Oof!

But the Rankin/Bass production team loved it and did it again and again to bring us such holiday characters as:

Seriously, have you watched this recently? Get ready to cry…

Clearly, they needed to get more use out of those desert backgrounds and came up with Nestor.  I love this little guy! what pluck. Again, sad at the beginning, but still so good!

I loved this little big eared and big hearted little baby! One of my favorites.

You already saw skinny Santa, but what about young Santa?

And of course these two brothers…

Of course Rank Bass Productions holiday specials are just the tippy tip tip of their wonderful work (hello Mad Monster Party…) but if you’d like more information, I highly suggest you check out Rick Goldschmidt’s amazing blog. He has a wonderful collection of images and literally wrote the book on Rankin Bass. And if you still want to see more Christmas specials inspired by Rankin Bass, check out this cool site dedicated to the best holiday specials out there.

Did you watch any Rankin Bass Christmas specials this year?

 

Let’s Go Shopping // SPONSOR LOVE Part 2

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Like I said the other day, we here at Camp Kiddo are pretty darn lucky to have such amazing sponsors. They are all such a creative and colorful bunch—we consider ourselves truly truly lucky!  I know you’ll adore them as much as we do! So without further ado, here is Part 2 of our sponsor love!

1. ANORAK MAGAZINE

Friends, Anorak magazine is crazy cool. Geared towards kiddos who are ages 7-12, it’s packed full of groovy illustrations (all custom made for Anorak by a variety of amazing artists!) and  loads of fun activities. Anorak is all about celebrating a child’s world— from culture to science to fashion to stories and even sports and food. I highly recommend picking one up! They also publish an amazing little iPad app. (See it here!)

And if you have a really liddle kiddle, don’t forget! They also publish the adorable preschool mag, PLOC (featuring illustrations by vintage fave, Alain Gree! See a sample here!) I think this groovy mag would make an excellent stocking stuffer this holiday season! (Shop here!)

2. MS TIPS VINTAGE

One of our very faves, Minneapolis-based vintage seller Tammy has been serving up the best in vintage eye candy for over three years now. This adorable girlie finds THEE BEST stuff! She also has the cutest little boy, so she definitely “gets” kiddo wear. Shop here!

3. A PEARS VINTAGE

This sweet shop— run by  Miss Ashley— is newer to me but already made a big impression on us over here. She packs her shop full of cute stuff, with a focus on adorable vintage baby goodies as well as toys and things for toddlers. Shop here!

4. 1 SWEET DREAM

Oh how we love this shop! Michele’s things make frequent appearances in our Monday Retro Round Up and it’s no wonder. This sassy gal offers up an excellent variety for kiddos of all ages—and some REALLY cool vintage toys. For the month of December take 20% off with the code: MODERNKIDDO.  Shop here!


5. LISHYLOO VINTAGE

My girl Alisha is really part of the Modern Kiddo family. I’ve known her since our Live Journal days when we were obsessive Blythe collectors. Fast forward many years later and this busy mama of 3 still manages to scour the thrifts for adorable (and affordable!) goodies. Lishy Look vintage was one of the very first shops on Etsy to focus soley on children’s clothing, and the girl knows her stuff! You can count on her to always have affordable deals.  Shop here!


6. HEY SWEETIE PIE

Dayna’s shop, Hey Sweetie Pie, has a marvelous collection of vintage treats. Dayna takes excellent photos (so important when “e-thrifting”!) and has a terrific eye. Her shop tends to carry mostly things for the littles, but she also has a handful of excellent items for the home as well.  Shop here!


7.  MY CHARMING COLORs

Oh lovely little Jess! This girl is truly one of a kind. She is genuinely one of the sweetest, kindest girls you could ever hope to meet. She runs the sweet blog, One Little Moustach, which chronicles her life with her lovely hubby and adorable little boy Judah….BUT she also crochet’s like a fiend and makes the CUTEST hats you ever did see! You can get them at her Etsy shop My Charming Colors.

Whew, so there you have it! Are you interested in becoming a Modern Kiddo sponsor for December? Email me Alix [at] modernkiddo.com for rates!

A little vintage holiday magic!

Kiddo Style: Vintage

Hi hi friends!  It is officially December, which means we can officially break out the holiday cheer! The Peach got her picture taken with Santa and we are playing the holiday tunes nonstop.  And of course, that means that the next few Round Ups are going to include a whole lot of holiday cuteness, so check out this week’s goodies!

We all love a good holiday book, but this one looks like a lot of fun–changing up Santa’s Coca Cola colors! From Etsy seller, Oopsee Daisies.

I know I did my velvet round up already, but this one is too darling not to include. And from Neiman Marcus to boot! From Etsy seller, Peppermint & Cocoa.

Who wouldn’t want to sip cocoa out of Santa’s head? I love these little mugs! From Etsy seller, Tipsy Vintage.

I’m beyond crushing on this holiday reindeer sweater. This makes me want to sip cocoa by an open fire. Preferably in one of those Santa mugs. From Etsy seller, Mama Fox Vintage.

As if tea wasn’t fun enough, but a Christmas tree tea set to play with? And for $10? SCORE! From Etsy seller, Vintage Cabin.

Look at those happy dancing snowmen festooning this darling dress! From Etsy seller, Winding Road Vintage.

It is holiday cookie time, so why not try out these great cookie cutters—angel or astronaut? From Etsy seller,  Cherry Chic Vintage.

Folks. I could do a whole vintage kiddo retro round up on Christmas stockings alone. And maybe I WILL next week, but until then, I will share with you this wonderful non-stocking shaped stocking—featuring Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with the longest lashes EVER! From Etsy seller, the Wrinkly Elephant.

I don’t know about you, but I love a little boy in a neck tie. I know the bow ties are more in fashion right now, but I would swoon with cuteness overload if I saw this tie on a boy sitting at my Christmas table. More ham for him! From Etsy seller, A Pear’s Vintage Goodies.

Could we talk about this hat for a moment?  I love it. It reminds me that kids actually used to wear these types of hats. I remember one of the kids from The Christmas Story wore one like that. From Etsy seller, Jack Sprat, who sells primarily BOYS VINTAGE.  Huzzah!

Happy Monday, folks!