In the fifties Christmas was a very important event in our lives. Christmas was the holiday that kids looked forward to all year long.  Back then, most kids believed Santa did check his list to see if they had been naughty or nice!  Of course, our behavior was beyond reproach as Christmas drew nearer.

How many of you remember going with your parents to pick out the Christmas tree?   We spent a long time picking out the perfect tree and then drove home with the tree on top of our parents' cars.  With many families, singing Christmas carols at the top of their lungs as they drove home with the tree became an annual tradition.

Decorating our Christmas tree was a family tradition back in the 50's. Most of our Christmas Trees were decorated with Shiny Brite glass ornaments.  They were relatively inexpensive ornaments and affordable for most families. Plastic ornaments became very popular during the 50s.  Many families preferred plastic ornaments as they were very cheap and of course more durable than the glass ornaments.  And don't forget the tinsel we so carefully placed on our trees. However, the star was the all important ornament on our trees!  Once the star was placed on the top of the tree and the lights were turned on, many familes gathered around the tree and sang Christmas carols together.  In 1946, Noma began selling bubble lights which became the most popular lights Noma had ever sold.  As kids, many of us would sit for hours and admire those bubble lights on our trees. And how could we forget when the aluminum Christmas trees with rotating color wheels became the rage in 1959?  And, remember using flashlights to find our way to the fuse box to replace yet another blown fuse?

Some families decorated their trees with homemade ornaments.  Kids would string popcorn or cranberries on long strings to drape around the trees.  At school we made homemade decorations to take home and put on our trees.  How many of you remember making paper snow flakes that we thought were absolutely beautiful?  And of course, there were the garlands we made out of colored construction paper and placed on our trees.  But, the most remembered gifts are the ones we made for our parents at school!  We worked really hard on those presents and could hardly wait for them to be opened.

Remember how we would sit down on the floor with our Christmas stockings that Santa had filled?  Our stockings were generally filled with an apple, an orange, a banana and various kinds of nuts.  Sometimes our stockings even contained a candy cane and other small treasures.  And yes, believe it or not, some kids really were worried their stocking may have nothing but a lump of coal in it.

Think back to Christmas time in the 50s.  Do you remember participating in church and school plays? It was with great expectations we hoped to be chosen as Mary or Joseph in our church's Christmas Pagent.  But even if we were chosen to be Wisemen or Shepherds, we remained enthusiastic. Our parents proudly set in the audience with their Brownie Hawkeye cameras snapping pictures of us. Those school and church plays were a family event that the entire family looked forward to.