Christmas 1965 - Mom and Dad's First Christmas Together As a Married Couple

This photo was created using Mom and Dad's wedding photo which was taken ealier in the year.

Christmas 1967 - See 'n Say The Farmer Says

From Wikipedia:

"See 'n Say is an educational toy created by the toy company Mattel in 1965 after the success of its talking Chatty Cathy doll."

"In the 1960s, after introducing a line of talking dolls that said different phases when a string protruding form their upper back was pulled, Mattel trademarked the word chatty. Several Mattel pull-string talking dolls and toys were packaged in boxes that read 'A chatty Toy' or 'A Chatty Doll by Mattel'. However, these dolls and toys spoke phrases at randon when their 'chatty ring' was pulled. see 'n Say, introduced in 1965, was the first Mattel talking toy that allowed children to choose the exact phrase they wanted to hear by adjusting a pointer on the toy's face to a particular item and pulling the 'chatty ring.' The Farmer Says See 'n Say made animal sounds when a pointer shaped like a miniature farmer was aimed at pictures of animals on its dial. For example, when pointed at an image of a duck, the phrase 'this is a duck...quack, quack, quack' was heard. Unlike other toys, the original See 'n Says required no batteries. Instead, sound was produced by a simple low-fidelity phonograph record driven by a metal coil wond by pulling the toy's string. The was the same mechanism used in Chatty Cathy dolls."

I loved this toy. I loved pulling the string and being able to pick which sound I wanted to hear.

Christmas 1968 - Color Wheel

The following is from Wikipedia:

"An aluminum Christmas tree is a type of artificial Christmas tree that was popular in the United States from 1958 until about the mid-1960s. As its name suggests, the tree is made of aluminum, featuring foil needles and illumination from below via a rotating color wheel."

"Aluminum Christmas trees were first manufactured sometime around 1955, remained popular into the 1960s, and were manufactured into the 1970s."

"During the 1960s, the aluminum Christmas tree enjoyed its most popular period of usage. As the mid-1960s passed, the aluminum Christmas tree began to fall out of favor, with many thrown away or relegated to basements and attics. The airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965 has been credited with ending the era of the aluminum tree, and by 1967 their time had almost completely passed."

"The aluminum Christmas tree was used as a symbol of the over-commercialization of Christmas in the 1965 Peanuts holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. The program is considered a classic amongst Christmas specials, and its mention of the aluminum tree solidified the tree's legendary status while satirizing it as well. Peanuts character 'Lucy' implored Charlie Brown to get a 'big, shiny aluminum tree...maybe painted pink.' Charlie lamented the commercialization of the true meaning of Christmas, ignored his friends' request, and purchased a small, scrawny natural tree instead."

In the bottom photo I'm standing in front and my cousins Debby, Diane and Danny are standing behind me. Behind all of us is an aluminum tree. The color wheel is at the bottom right.

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Television Special

A Charlie Brown Christmas is, along with The Grinch, my most favorite Christmas television special. Shown every December, I've watched it for a number of years. In fact, it was first broadcast in 1965 which was the year before I was born. My brothers, Sam, Pete, and I, watched it just about every holiday season. I think our favorite line is when Linus asks Lucy to "name five good reasons" for something or other and Lucy counts back from five on her fingers and is left with just a fist in Linus's face. He responds by saying "Those are good reasons!"

I probably fell out of watching it in the middle to late 80's but picked up the video cassette in the early 90's. I now have it on DVD and Dale and I have watched it every year since then. Great fun and wonderful memories.