July 25th – EVENING EVENT – CHRISTMAS IN JULY 5pm-8pm

Come celebrate the holidays a little early with us! Why wait until the weather is cold and things are sold out? Join us for our summer Santa, vendor specials and more. Look for the hidden snowmen and get a chance to win a $25 Visa Card!

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year, and because I’m old, I remember some of these traditions and miss them, though we are probably a little safer without them! These weren’t just different decorations or different songs. These were rituals that defined what it meant to be a family during the holidays. Some vanished because they were genuinely hazardous. Others disappeared because lawyers got involved. Many simply faded as our world shifted from neighborhoods to subdivisions, from downtown to the internet, from patience to instant gratification. Here are some Christmas traditions that once defined the American holiday season—and then disappeared completely, do you remember any of them?

1. From 1959 to 1965, millions of American homes abandoned real trees for gleaming silver sculptures. These weren’t trying to look natural. They were Space Age statements—metallic branches reflecting rotating colored lights from a floor wheel. The Aluminum Specialty Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, cranked out over a million of these beauties. They cost about $150-$250 in today’s world. You couldn’t string regular lights on them. The metal conducted electricity, turning your tree into a potential shock hazard. Instead, families placed a color wheel on the floor—a spotlight behind rotating gels that washed the tree in shifting reds, blues, greens, and ambers. When Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special aired in 1965. Lucy tells Charlie to get “the biggest aluminum tree you can find, maybe painted pink.” When Charlie Brown rejects it for a scraggly real tree. America followed his lead and by 1969, the fad was over. The trees became garage sale jokes until vintage collectors brought them back decades later.
2. Before 1972, every strand of tinsel on your tree contained lead foil, not plastic, not mylar, but lead! The weight made it perfect. Each strand hung straight down, creating shimmering waterfalls of silver that modern substitutes can’t replicate. A box of 1,000 strands costs about what $3.50 would run you today. Families saved and reused them for years.
3. In late August, homes would receive the Sears Christmas catalog in their mailboxes. These weren’t flimsy fliers. We’re talking 600 pages, five pounds of glossy dreams. Kids claimed them immediately. Different-colored pens for each child, circling desired toys, months before Christmas. The 1969 edition had 225 toy pages alone. Parents used them as behavior tools—” Santa’s watching your wish book choices.” Rural families depended on these catalogs. For some, Sears was the only shopping option. The toy section showed elaborate displays you’d never see in stores. By Christmas, those catalogs were dog-eared, torn, covered in marker. The classic era of the massive Sears catalog ended in the early 1990s. Internet shopping killed the anticipation of flipping through actual pages. That tactile joy of waiting months between choosing and receiving kids today will never know!
4. 12. TV Yule Log Broadcasting. In 1966, New York’s WPIX created a television phenomenon by broadcasting a continuous loop of a burning fireplace on Christmas Eve. The three-hour film showed a fireplace from Gracie Mansion, accompanied by Christmas music.
   Here’s what made it special: In an era of three channels, everyone watched the same thing at the same time.
   Families without fireplaces gathered around their television sets. Apartment dwellers especially embraced this virtual hearth.
   But it wasn’t just about the flames. It was about knowing that millions of other families were watching the exact same fire, at the exact same moment. The broadcast drew surprising ratings, beating regular programming. Other cities copied the concept—Chicago’s WGN, Los Angeles’ KTLA. Television critics mocked it as the ultimate in lazy programming. Viewers loved the shared experience. Cable television’s arrival in the 1980s offered multiple channels, fragmenting the audience. WPIX canceled it in 1990.
   Yes, digital versions exist now on Netflix and YouTube. You can stream a fireplace anytime you want. But that’s exactly what’s missing. The communal experience of everyone watching the same broadcast fireplace, knowing your neighbors were seeing the identical flames—that’s been extinguished. We have more choices now. But we’ve lost the shared moment.
5. The 1960s represented peak Christmas card culture. Americans sent 4 billion cards annually by 1968. Families maintained card lists with hundreds of names, updating addresses yearly in special books. A box of 50 cards costs about what $28 would buy today.
   The process started in November—addressing envelopes, adding personal notes, applying stamps. Some families included newsletters detailing their year’s activities, typed on carbon paper for multiple copies. Card displays were competitive home decorations. People strung cards on ribbons across doorways or arranged them on mantels. Receiving cards from distant relatives or old friends provided the only annual contact. Mailmen delivered bags of cards daily throughout December. The post office hired thousands of temporary workers. By 1980, long-distance calling became affordable, reducing the need to send cards. Emails and social media eliminated the communication gap that these cards once filled. Today’s average household sends just less than 20 cards.