Depression Age 1930's**Fashionista Christmas Cards**

Depression Age Christmas Cards had a very Fashionable Edge.
The clothing shown in these vintage card illustrations is often stylized and a bit romanticized, but looking at them, you can still get a good idea of the fashion trends of the day.

All of the cards shown here are from the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Even though many people were either making their clothing from cheap fabrics like feedsack or just plain doing without, the clothes depicted in vintage cards from this era were often extravagant, with fur trimming on coats and suits. Gloves were not illustrated to show their functionality but were treated as huge decorated gauntlets. And hats were not just for warmth; they were high fashion fantasies.

These cards also show fun and bliss being had by all,great for chearing one up. It is the hopes and dreams that keep people going in tough times, so the cards were like little promises of better times ahead.

Is There A Santa Claus ?

A true published account of a child dealing with the possibility that there is not a Santa Claus and how her grandmother convinced her other wise. This reminds me of when I questioned my mother who informed me that as long as I believed, then Santa would bring me a gift, if I choose not to believe then he would not. To this day I believe in Santa, and every Christmas morning I find an unwrapped present from Santa under the tree!
Now a most inspiring story

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid.
I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"

My Grandma was not the gushy kind,never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the
truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her "world-famous" cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus?" she snorted ...."Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!! Now, put on your coat, and let's go." "Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world-famous cinnamon bun.

"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days. "Take this
money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded,full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping.

For a few moments I just stood there,confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for. I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs.
Pollock's grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough; he didn't have a good coat.

I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy
Bobby Decker a coat! I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that.

"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes, ma'am," I replied shyly.
"It's for Bobby." The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) in Christmas paper and ribbons and
wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it.

Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and
forever officially, one of Santa's helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were
--- ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.
May you always have LOVE to share,
HEALTH to spare
and FRIENDS that care...
..
Also may you always believe in the magic of Santa Claus!

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Bars,Offices,Malls,just about everywhere has Ugly Christmas Sweater Contests. They are fun and becoming a new Christmas Tradition. Here are photos I have found of ugly sweaters, maybe they can give you some ideas.

Whats on your Christmas Wish List ?

Are you tired of the cookie cutter items out there in most of you big box stores? Well How About---
Do you want or want to get something Unexpected,Unusual,Funky,or Hard to Find with a special thought behind it? Or maybe something Handmade or Repurposed? How about a piece of History, something with Sentimental Value, or just Fun? Are you after something Practical but Different?
I know we can meet all of those requirements in all different price ranges. So what are you waiting for? Get on done here and check it out !!
The Photos don't even begin to show all the variety that we have but hopefully they will entice you further.
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Antique Copper Moonshine Still

Antique Hand Blown Colored Fly Catch Bottles

Vintage Bissell Hand Push Wood Vacumn

Large Hanging Chalkware Banana Bank

Gigantic Advertising Budweiser Christmas Ornaments

Carnival Glass

Twig Furniture

Retro Aluminum Ware & ButcherBlock Table

Vintage Silhouettes

China

Handmade Folkart Bird Plant Holder

Brass,Copper,Gilded items

Art Pottery

Majolica,Crackle Glass,Screen Divider,Record Cabinet

Misc Sewing,Quilts,Clothing

Stoneware Crocks,Enamelware

1950's 60's Retro Funky & Oriental

















Much Much More in stock of above photographed and also Jewelry,Architectural Items,Holiday Items,Tins,Toys,Local Memorbilia,
Depression and Retro Kitchenware,Brewiana,Tobacco Related,Derby,
all types Advertising--etc etc etc.
So come visit and see what all we have to offer,two full floors with merchandise added weekly.
For those who love this kinda stuff but you aren't sure what to get them we also have gift certificates.

Did You Know?--Christmas Decor Trivia

Elves and Christmas---For centuries, Northern Europeans believed their homes were protected by mischievous gnomes. When the Santa Claus tradition made it to Scandinavia in the 1800's, writers quickly adapted the gnomes into Santa's friends and helpers. Elf figurines in porcelain, glass, plastic and rubber are now common sights in antique shops.

Nutcrackers---The 1892 debut of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite ballet established nutcrackers as a Christmas holiday tradition. Although the first hinged nutcracker is attributed to the Romans, the ones we’re familiar with were first produced by German craftsmen in the early 1800s, as functional decorations in the shapes of soldiers, kings, woodsmen, and miners.
With their iconic beards and painted rosy cheeks, German nutcrackers soon found a large audience in America. U.S. GI’s brought them home during WW2, spurring a wave of collecting.

GLASS ORNAMENTS---Until the mid-1800’s, Christmas trees were mostly decorated with homemade adornments or edibles like fruits and nuts. But the German entrepreneurs based in the glassblowing center of Lauscha had a better idea. They began producing decorative tree ornaments made out of blown glass. In the 1880s, F.W. Woolworth imported the first of these baubles into the U.S., triggering the American love affair with Christmas tree ornaments.
German craftsmen began producing images of fruits, hearts, stars, and angels in glass in the mid-1800s, and their popularity soared. By the 1880s American entrepreneur F.W. Woolworth had begun importing these German glass and metal treasures to his five and dime stores all across the country, sparking a Christmas ornament craze in the U.S.
Folksy, homemade decorations like textile and wooden tree ornaments also became popular around this time, and many were constructed from miscellaneous household materials like wire, pressed tin, construction paper and cardboard, often using instructions published in magazines. The handmade German ornament trade floundered after World War I, so American innovators mechanized the process, mass-producing ornaments that were sent to other companies to be decorated, often by hand. The largest such American company was “Shiny-Brite.”

Christmas Tree Lights---Christmas tree lighting dates to 17th century Germany, when wax was melted to tree branches to hold candles to illuminate specific ornaments. In 1882, Edward Johnson, an assistant to Thomas Edison, designed the first set of electric tree lights, which became popular in department store displays. It wasn't until the introduction of safety light strings in 1917, however, that household tree lighting took off, spawning innumerable combinations of colors, shapes, sizes, and figural lights.

Treetop Angels---Some of the earliest tree-topping Christmas angels were made in 18th-century Germany. The figures were often formed of plaster on a composition armature, with bodies of sawdust and robes of brass-foil-covered paper. Some late-19th-century Nuremberg angels wear paper-and-foil crowns, while others are backed by pleated paper wings and wrapped in matching paper skirts. These pieces are very collectible today precisely because they are so fragile.

By the 20th century, construction materials such as composition, paper, and cardboard were still in common use, but fabric had replaced paper for angel skirts and other articles of clothing. Angels were attached to treetops by cardboard tubes, glass cylinders, or small springs. Some angels, like those made by Noma and other manufacturers, lit up; others caught light in starbursts made of spun glass radiating behind cotton clouds.

Reindeer---Reindeer have been associated with Christmas since the famous 1823 poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (’Twas the night before Christmas), and Rudolph was created in 1939 by Robert Mays. Early German paper mache reindeer, often covered with fur or felt, emerged around 1900, and later collectible incarnations included metal, glass, celluloid and plastic models (not to mention candy containers, tree ornaments, clothing, and other reindeer items).