Recently I heard a documentary on CBC radio by Bill Richardson, detailing his memories of those candle-powered angels that ring Christmas chimes. Heat from candles make the tiny angels rotate and whack bells, producing a gentle, irritating tinkle. My enduring memories of these devices is being burned repeatedly (Bart Simpson-style) because I couldn't resist messing… Read More

For many folks Christmas is a time of nostalgia, when old decorations and old memories are unpacked and appreciated for a moment. Because the season is particularly associated with children and toys it made me remember a "time capsule" of little toys, most of which are over 60 years old. The cache actually doesn't have anything… Read More

How was Christmas?  Did you get what you need?  We '70s types know you can't always get what you want. Whatever you got, how was the wrapping?  Some folks make present wrapping a work of art.  Around our tree we are careful unwrappers and favourite papers get saved and used again next year and the year… Read More

I sense that many people are fond of Christmas trees. On Twitter they posted pictures of their decorated trees at the first of the month and I remember last year trees lingered far into January. Folks from other cultures must be charmed when they observe our ritual of bringing a tree inside and decorating it with treasured ornaments. The… Read More

In our hampers of Christmas paraphernalia there are some late 19th century cards that demonstrate the concept of generational humour. I assume they were hilarious in their time but today it takes some unpacking to get the point. There is just enough depth to the collection to suggest several themes (we are always looking for patterns). Most of the cards… Read More

We are beginning to excavate the wicker picnic hampers stuffed with memories of Christmases past. Uncovered was this little collection of Christmas card survivals - I'll let you judge if they deserved to live another season. Christmas cards were once a bigger deal (mail was a bigger deal). These paper labels were distributed by the Post Office in the… Read More