A Baby Boomer Christmas at Our House in the 1950's

As a Baby Boomer child of the 1950's, I realize how lucky I was to have been born in the U.S. in post World War II. The country was on a high of pride and relief that this war of wars was over and times were at the beginning of prosperity. Industrialization was growing, with factories coming off of the being geared up for making products for the military and switching over to products that the post war families wanted to buy. This was a time of not much money for many families, but it was also the beginnings of credit for the average family and buying on time or buy now, pay later. Gradually, middle income families were beginning to buy new homes, furniture, washing machines, and all of the innovative products that were coming out.

To be a child of a middle income, suburban family in the 1950's was a very fortunate thing. Now, I have to make a note that of course, there were many still having very hard times and that needs to noted. This is not a posting of ignorance or gloating, but one merely stating how fortunate I, and many other children of these times were to have been born where and when we were. These are years that I will never forget, when my parents were still young and although facing all of the difficult decisions that new families do, there were jobs and the cost of living actually allowed one parent to stay home and raise the children.

The Christmas season was a glowing time in my house, as my father was full of Christmas and loved doing everything to excess. This could make for difficulties for my mother as she had to find ways to save money to make sure the family had the necessities, but you couldn't really contain my dad when it came to Christmas. I even missed some of his younger years and heard others tell the stories of some of the things he did that neighbors remembered as wonderful. I wished I had been there to enjoy some of them as well.

Some examples of these Christmas stories of my father: