Most of these Christmas postcards were collected for but not used in my book Holidays on Display, writes William L. Bird, curator at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. These postcards look at the art and industry of the holiday display, the stuff we see in shop windows, on building exteriors, in restaurants and malls, and on the street.
Christmas Club Corporation Valance Streamers Ticonderoga NY
Four counters, desks, etc.
Each colorful roll is 10 inches high and 60 feet long, scalloped at bottom. Can easily be attached under teller windows, around desks, to moldings, etc., with scotch tape or tacks. Sold only in complete rolls, individually packaged
Capitol Records, Hollywood, California
In Chicago in the late 1940s, for example, Marshall Field’s turned one of the enormous modern decorator show houses in the store into a home for Santa, the Cozy Cloud Cottage. The designer, John Moss, dispensed with the traditional Santa throne, instead using an overstuffed armchair and Chippendale knock-offs in the modern setting, furniture that had been banned from the display by the original decorator, Robsjohn-Gibbings. So the whole treatment became a wry comment on modernism, with reindeer parked around a pot belly stove in the kitchen, and where you exited from your visit to Santa through a sliding glass door onto a frosted patio, that one year had a dog house, and another, a bar for penguins. – William L. Bird
Christmas Season at the Inn Buck Hill Falls PA
postmarked 1964
Christmas Tree Gift Shops Yarmouth Port Cape Cod MA
on Route 6A, corner at Willow Street
Cape Cod’s most distinctive and charming gift shops
postmarked 1958
The grand old animated Christmas window displays of the sort that once had Woodies, Hecht’s, Garfinckel’s and Lansburgh’s competing to demonstrate their creative extravagance are now relegated to nostalgic memories, scenes in old movies and on New York’s Fifth Avenue (and even there, the competing stores’ windows are all produced by one company).
The reasons for the demise of the Christmas window are well-known: The decline of the downtown department store, the rise of windowless big-box retailing, the replacement of family-owned local shops by big national chains and the triumph of convenience over showmanship.
“It was an amenity of the walking-around town,” says William “Larry” Bird. – Marc Fisher
Christmas Tree Inn Three Little Pigs Santa Claus AZ
Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf
14 miles west of Kingman on Las Vegas Highway
Real home Cooking – Homemade Bread, Pies, Cakes
Open Every Day
Breakfast and Luncheon – Dinners on Sunday
Gift Shop open – Overnight Camping
Weekday Dinners by reservation
Lee and Frankie Ratliff
Christmas, Astrodome -Houston, Texas
Christmas, Florida, 1961
Christmas Park, Albion New York
Pittsburg, KS
Christmas, Spring Lake Hotel
Columbia, South Carolina, Christmas
Country Club Plaza night Kansas City, MO
Court House decorated for the Christmas Season Logan OH
DC Transit US Capitol Christmas Card Washington DC
Christmas card from O. Roy Chalk, DC Transit Company owner
U.S. Capitol
Denver -Champa, Street
Denver City, County Building, Colorado
Filenes, Boston
Guarantee Savings’ Animated display Fresno, California
King Downtown -Kansas, City
Lake Lawn Lodge Delavan WI
The beautiful Fountain Mall by winter, surrounded by exciting gift shops
Light Tower, Christmas, San Jose, California.
The light tower is a half size reproduction of the original San Jose Light Tower.
The Living Christmas Tree, featuring the 135-voice College-Career Choir, directed by John Gustafson, Minister of Music, sings the old and new songs of Christmas. The giant 50-foot tree upon which the choir stands has 1,500 pounds of juniper boughs with hundreds of lights and ornaments. A picturesque snow scene completes the winter wonderland. A Southern California spectacular.
Military Park, Newark, New Jersey
Mrs. K’s Toll House Christmas
Silver Spring, Maryland
Northland Shopping Mall Southfield MI Christmas
Ricci’s Columbine Cafe Granby CO
Santa visits Granby, Colorado
On Scenic U.S. Highway 40 and
North Pole Avenue
Santa Claus Lane Hollywood CA
Hollywood Blvd. becomes Santa Claus Lane with gala parade of stars from Thanksgiving Day to the New Year
Santa’s Land Shop -Putney, VT
Southdale Shopping Mall Edina MN Merry Christmas display sign
Sterling Alaska Fur & Game Farms Lake Placid and Ausable Chasm NY
Whiteface Mt 4872 ft. peak at right
Lake Placid, NY
Sterling Linder Department Store Christmas Tree –
Cleveland, Ohio
Street Area Santa’s Workshop North Pole CO
Students’ Lounge at Christmas Saint Francis Hospital Pittsburgh PA
Mary Immaculate Hall
Nurses’ Residence and School of Nursing, Saint Francis Hospital
postmarked 1950
Trees Belmont Shore, Long Beach, CA
Long Beach, California. Christmas Eve on Belmont Shore. Brightly lighted trees moored on barges cast dazzling reflections on the still waters of Alamitos Bay, while carols from boatloads of choirs sound clear upon the quiet night.
Trinkaus Manor Restaurant Merry Christmas outdoor holiday light display Oriskany NY
Trinkaus Manor Restaurant Santa Claus and carousel outdoor holiday light display Oriskany NY
Wolf Dessauer –
Christmas_Fort Wayne, IN
Woodward & Lothrop Department Store Christmas Washington DC
Main aisle featuring Santa Claus on the red carpet, Woodward & Lothrop, Washington, D.C., about 1965
World’s Largest Living Christmas Tree Wilmington NC
This three hundred year Live Oak is lighted with 4,000 multi-colored bulbs, and is viewed each December by a quarter of a million persons. Its limb spread is 110 feet and heights 55 feet.
Sterling Alaska Fur & Game Farms Entrance Lobby Lake Placid NY
Home of St. Nick’s Animals
See 1000 Fur and Game Alive and Tame
3 farms–Lake Placid, Ausable Chasm, Plattsburg, NY
Sterling Alaska Fur & Game Farms Ausable Chasm NY
see us at head of Chasm
Home of St. Nick’s Animals
See 1000 Fur & Game Alive and Tame
3 farms – Ausable Chasm, lake Placid, Plattsburg, NY
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