Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: ornaments

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of holiday happenings -- any kind of end-of-year holiday gathering, celebration, or decoration . Gold is the color of the day in this holiday scene that includes a gold Christmas tree, a gold sculpture on the wall, and gold wrapping paper and bows on the some of the presents. Even the carpet has a yellowish-almost-golden hue. There's no date on the photo. What do you think -- 1960s?

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of toys or gifts . A Christmas photo of a girl, who is smiling and seems happy, and her doll, who is rigid and tense -- and seems a little scary! Before you cautiously back up and quietly exit the house, take note of the metallic Christmas tree, the granny square afghan on the chair, and the girl's striped shirt and Santa pin. For another potentially scary situation, see The Doll Waited Patiently for Them to Come Home .

Hope you have a holiday celebration filled with as much fun and excitement as these kids seem to be having (well, the youngest one, at least, appears to be having a good time)! Best wishes, Alan

"Merry Christmas. Love and best wishes, Catharine." An odd anthropomorphic scene of a burning candle kissing an apple as they hang together as ornaments on a Christmas tree. This postcard dates to the first decade of the twentieth century.

A postcard-sized example of ornamental penmanship featuring a flourished bird. The piece is unsigned and may date to as early as the 1880s or 1890s. "Compliments of Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Shoemaker, Dakota, Ill." Joseph Shellenberger Shoemaker (1854-1936) was a well-known bishop in the Mennonite Church. He and his wife, Elizabeth Sechrist Brubaker (1856-1931), were married in 1877, and they were members of the Freeport Mennonite Church in Freeport, Illinois. For additional examples of bird flourishes and other ornamental penmanship, see my Writing, Lettering, Flourishing album and the Clinton Clark Scrapbook , which was uploaded to the Internet Archive by IAMPETH (International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting).

Die-cut advertisement designed for hanging on a tree.

A mother and son-—along with a tree and wrapped presents-—seem to be materializing out of the ether in this Christmas double exposure. For other haunted holiday happenings, see The Ghosts of Christmas Past and The Ghosts of Easter Past (below).

For more information, see the cropped version of this slide:

I received this slide as a Christmas present in 2015, but the Star Wars Death Star Space Station that they're putting together here in front of the Christmas tree dates to 1978! Take a look at the full slide to see the entire Christmas-day scene:

A photo in colour for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A boy and his toys--a pedal car and teddy bear--in a hand-colored Christmas photo, circa 1930s, from the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area. Also worth noting: the small wicker chair that teddy's sitting on, the decorations on the Christmas tree, and the nativity scene below the tree. This is the same little fellow driving this same car out in the yard in the Sonny, Bunny, and Dummy photo:

"Merry Christmas, 1949. The Hassingers."

"Merry Christmas. Miles, Geal, and Rosalie Hudson."

Stamped on back: "Hill Studio, 1415 Derry Street, Harrisburg, Pa." Handwritten on back: "Dec. 23, 1947." A puzzling photo of a masked Santa Claus (evidently a woman wearing a skirt) sitting next to a pile of wrapped presents and a Christmas tree. Newspapers are strewn about on the floor, and the walls in the background seem to be either water-stained or wet (could it be the inside of an unheated shed or trailer with condensation running down the walls?). The tips of what appear to be ironing boards surround Santa on both sides. Could this show early preparations for a gift distribution of some sort? Or has a downtrodden Santa taken up residence in a storage unit?

Single-sided greeting card printed in blue with other handpainted colors. Information regarding Karl Ramet is elusive. From brief mentions here and there, I believe that he was an artist who taught drawing in the Reading, Pa., schools in the early 1910s and then later moved to New York City, where he designed the sets for at least one Broadway show.

Now even Santa knows what it feels like to be held hostage by all the holiday advertising!

Mouse over the image for a closer view of the bug toy . Either that's a giant mutant insect getting ready to attack that poor kid or it's a toy of some sort, perhaps something like the mechanical crawling beetle pictured in the Victoria and Albert Museum's image collection.

See also the full photo of the bug toy (below). Either that's a giant mutant insect getting ready to attack that poor kid or it's a toy of some sort, perhaps something like the mechanical crawling beetle pictured in the Victoria and Albert Museum's image collection.