Through the Lens: Capturing the Magic of Yet Another Christmas Season

One response to the puzzling dilemma of how the jolly old elf could stuff every child’s Christmas stocking in just one night was offered by the Ideal Toy Corporation back in 1955. Captured by Getty photographer Al Barry, this image exposed Santa as mass-produced and everywhere. The visual of the assembly line filled with Santa heads—lacking suits, boots, and sacks—might have sparked the usual concerns about the commercialization of Christmas, but which child of the 1950s would have desired it any differently?

Barry’s photograph features in a newly released collection of nostalgic holiday images, A Very Vintage Christmas, which explores the magic of winter celebrations from 1900 to 1980. Apart from plastic Santa heads, the anthology showcases the enormous Macy’s Day parade Santa, a legion of chocolate Santas, and the renowned Santa impersonator Lucky Squire as he trims his beard. Other customs also benefit from mass production: there are assembly lines for novelty cracker twisters, cottage industries crafting bauble ornaments, warehouses filled with panettone makers, and grand estates in Norfolk brimming with turkeys. The charm of kitsch contrasts with the deeper sentiments of wartime years—sacks of correspondence reaching into the snowy distance not filled with letters for Santa, but with messages for family members stationed abroad—when Christmases “like the ones we used to know” were imbued with shared aspirations and wishes.

We might prefer to believe that our own family gatherings possess distinctive traditions; however, these visuals assert otherwise. Adhering to the norms presented in every Advent calendar has long been essential to creating the most wonderful time of the year. Paper hats, crackling fireplaces, and gifts beneath the tree: this publication offers proof of the cliché that all joyful Christmases bear similarities (while each discontented Christmas is discontented in its own manner).