The official pictures of kids with Santa – once called ‘sitting on Santa’s lap’ – has been around for generations. Here’s a look back at this Christmas ritual!
Vintage media
Here’s a look back at some of the greatest examples of fashionable gowns and flapper-style vintage dresses from the Roaring 20s that would be at home on the set of a Great Gatsby movie!
Antique travel trunks like these were like super-extra suitcases that offered more than just space for clothing that helped people easily pack and organize entire outfits, right down to the accessories. Here’s a peek!
The Christmas decorations in Victorian churches could be extremely lush Victorian Christians were faithful practitioners of their religion, and took special care decorating their churches
Um, our ancestors were weird, y’all. Maybe we’re just missing some context that would make these bizarre Victorian Christmas cards make sense?
Called ‘the world’s greatest toy catalog,’ vintage FAO Schwarz toy catalogs like this gives you a peek at what children of all ages loved to play with back in the sixties.
Remember apple head dolls – the early American craft with folk art roots that became popular again in the ’60s and ’70s? Find out how to make these shrunken apple dolls, and more about the art of dollmaking.
What is a tomato soup cake? Find out with these vintage recipes for what was really a classic spiced cake – although with one unusual addition: a can of regular tomato soup.
Take a look back at these vintage Hide-a-Bed sofa models – fold-out beds tucked into a couch to sleep guests – no spare bedroom needed.
The Plymouth Arrow was a compact car sold between 1976 and 1980 that was actually a re-branded version of the Mitsubishi Celeste. Here’s a look back at some of these small economy cars from the 70s!
While there are many different recipes for this classic sherry bundt cake, here is one that has remained popular for decades This dessert is moist and decadent with the perfect amount of sweetness.
These vintage dining room sets from the 40s & 50s – bright, cheerful & compact dinettes – were the perfect fit for small post-war houses. Take a look!
You need only 7 ingredients needed to make this quick, delicious and easy one-pan pumpkin bread recipe – and it’s as good for breakfast as it is for dessert! Get the 1980s how-to here.
Thanks to a simple, happy collaboration between a kid and Mother Nature… we have popsicles! Here’s a look back at the frozen treats we’e enjoyed over the decades.
Originally called a jeweled cheese ball, this retro-style cheddar-brandy cheese ball is so easy to make! It only takes a few minutes to mix and shape. Here’s how.
These fluffy butterscotch rolls with pecans have a brown sugar and raisin filling that’s perfectly tucked inside the soft yeast bun. Give ’em a try with this retro recipe from the ’60s!
Cozy 60s nightgowns and other sleepwear Sweetly demure in the earlier years; colorfully assertive and boldly patterned by the decade’s end… is it any surprise
To many Americans living south of the Mason-Dixon line, sweet potatoes must be made with marshmallows! Here are 6 ways to make old-fashioned marshmallow sweet potatoes for a Thanksgiving side dish!
Check out some of the most popular classic 1960s Chrysler station wagons – Plymouth Fury, Dodge Custom 880, Valiant V-200, Dodge Dart 440, Lancer 770, Chrysler Newport & more.
We’ve collected various 1920s makeup tips that millions of flappers used to get fabulous and rebellious for a night of jazz clubs, speakeasies and dancing.
Find out how to make these delicious old-fashioned fall desserts with recipes for pumpkin dessert squares, a coconut choco-swirl cake & a date bar cake.
Here, see vintage lots of 1960s lingerie – including girdles, corselets, bras, garters, pantyhose, nylons, bras, slips, panties, underwear, foundation garments and more from vintage catalogs from the sixties!
Dragnet was one of the original police procedurals, which began as a radio show, then as a (now-iconic) TV show from 1951-1959 — later followed by a faithful reboot from 1967 to 1970. They all starred Jack Webb as police sergeant Joe Friday.
Something new has happened to pumpkin pie: Double layer pumpkin cheesecake pies! Cream cheese blends perfectly with spicy pumpkin, and bakes up smooth and creamy.
For two years, Tom Hanks pounded the streets of the city searching for a job. Then he was flown to LA, screen tested, and finally selected for the role of Kip Wilson in ‘Bosom Buddies.’ And so a star was born.
This retro recipe for super chocolatey, marshmallow cream fudge makes a perfect treat! You can even substitute marshmallow cream for regular old marshmallows for the same delicious recipe.
The revitalized “sweater girl” phase of early 60s fashion was relaxed (good-bye girdles!), casually elegant and — dare we say — timeless. You can still wear this style today!
Peanut butter fudge meets rich chocolate fudge in ribbon fantasy fudge – a delicious homemade layered candy recipe from the ’80s.
Among the most famous letters in history was the one written near the end of the Civil War by President Lincoln to Mrs. Lydia Bixby of Boston.
Try some two-tone fudge, featuring both chocolate and butterscotch flavors! Your whole family will love both sides. Here’s a retro recipe from the 60s!
Chilly, creamy and crunchy, but with a flavor profile that might put you in mind of a deconstructed homemade Butterfinger, you can whip up these butterscotch bars in a jiffy!
Tangy lemon juice, crisp corn flake crumbs and sweetened condensed milk combine in this easy vintage no-cook lemon freeze recipe.
This vintage easy pumpkin chiffon pie features a no-bake filling – and is made completely from scratch. Make it in just 9 easy steps, illustrated here!
Take a seat and look back at these vintage 1960s chairs that used to fill homes – with styles ranging from the minimalist mid-century modern styles to the living room chairs with bold colors and patterns.
See how Vintage Kool-Aid soft drink mixes looked over the years, along with all of the flavors they’ve made so far. Plus, see the Kool-Aid man break down some walls!
What was Walter Matthau’s house like back in the ’70s? His wife Carol said that they gave it a country look and country feeling. Take a peek inside!
Olc cash register history goes back to the Victorian era, and were used to both streamline accounting, and to keep cashiers from stealing money. Find out more here!
This retro chocolate caramel nut bars recipe is the best of both of the candy bar classics! And it’s a very easy sweet snack to make at home. Get the vintage 80s recipe here!
This Southern peanut bar cookie is a delicious bar cookie that’s almost like a peanut brittle blondie! They’re made with rich Munch peanut brittle candy bars.
These nutty chocolate caramel bars feel a lot like a creamy, dreamy, frozen Snickers bar — perfect for any festivity where fans of candy bars cluster.
These cute vintage 60s dolls seemed to offer something for everyone – from the mod Swingy doll to more traditional baby dolls, and mini doll sets to talking toys!
From the 70s: With Chipos around, why buy any other potato chips? Chipos, fashioned for flavor from dried potato granules.
If you love the tangy taste of pineapple, and have been hoping to find some delicious old-fashioned pineapple upside-down cake recipes, you just need to look back a few decades!
Get the double deliciousness in this two-flavor fudge — which has chocolate and butterscotch combined together! This retro recipe comes from Nestle, and was published back in the 60s.
Kellogg’s came out with Pop-Tarts in 1964, and kids across the land adored those sweet little rectangles. Then in the late ’60s, Nabisco debuted Toastettes toaster pastries, their spin on the sugar & fruit-filled breakfast treats.
Here’s the ’80s way to use everyday corn syrup and tissue paper to make non-toxic face paints for Halloween or a school play!
Kellogg’s Concentrate cereal debuted in 1959. Despite being nutritious and not sugary, commenters here make it clear that people loved the stuff!
From the ground up, the ’69 Plymouth Fury was totally restyled. It was longer. Wider. And noticeably roomier inside. Flash back to the sixties here to see this classic car!
Cake baked in a pie shell… and a sauce that goes on at the top and ends up in a layer at the bottom of the cake. That’s Funny Cake – a Pennsylvania Dutch treat so intriguing, everyone who tastes it wants the recipe.
Here’s a delicious dessert for Thanksgiving or Christmas! This retro ’80s recipe for pumpkin pudding with honey pecan sauce — which actually makes six sweet mini souffles — is surprisingly easy to make.
Soaky was a popular brand of bubble bath in the ’60s that kids loved because the plastic bottles were shaped like cartoon characters. See some here!
Remember that AT&T jingle, ‘Reach out and touch someone’? Hear it again & find out how it came to be
If you remember the old ‘Reach out – reach out and touch someone’ long distance ad jingle, you probably just sang those words in your head! Look back at some of these vintage TV commercials, and find out how the ditty came together here!
Choco-peanut butter bar cookies, made with semi-sweet chocolate chips and chopped peanuts, are chewy and crunchy at the same time.
Tiny Tears was a very popular baby doll back in the ’50s – and the big selling point was that she cried ‘real’ tears – and wet her diaper.
In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, anyone who wanted to give their hair a healthy, voluminous bounce could get it with the help of vintage hot rollers like these.
With better quality than fixed-lens Instamatic-style cameras, but far less complicated than standard SLR cameras, these vintage point-and-shoot 35mm cameras were just what people were looking for in the ’80s.
Take a look back to see what food shopping used to be like in these photos of vintage 1960s supermarkets – scenes of shoppers, checkouts, storefronts & more!
If you lived through the seventies and eighties, you can probably immediately remember the sound that these vintage dot matrix printers used to make. See and hear them again here!
Based on one of the many traditional needlework crafts, these vintage needlepoint designs might just inspire you to get creative in all-new ways!
Take a look back into the ’70s to remember more than 100 different kinds of retro window curtains, including sheers, tie-backs and cafe curtains!
This delicious vintage Graham streusel cake starts with a boxed mix, the batter divided and adorned with a streusel-type crunch, and after baking, is drizzled with a light powdered sugar glaze. Here’s how to make it!
Remember these classic Fisher-Price preschool toys, like the vintage corn popper, colorful xylophone, music box TV and chatter telephone?
The ’57 Pontiacs had a Strato-Streak V-8 engine – and told customers to try it to ‘get a taste of the future today in America’s Number One Road Car!’
This Jell-O no-bake pudding cheesecake is a perfect quick dessert, because you don’t have to bake it, and it only takes 15 minutes to prepare.
Back in the ’70s, Lenox Temper-ware did everything: you could freeze in it, then bake in it, serve in it – and it came in 8 different dramatic patterns.
Star Trek’s original run lasted three seasons – but soon thereafter, it became a huge hit in syndication, inspired several TV series and more than a dozen movies.
This retro recipe from the ’70s is for a delicious mocha sour cream cake – a bundt cake flavored with instant coffee and chocolate chips.
Merlin, the ‘electronic wizard,’ was a red telephone-shaped toy used buttons, lights and sound effects to let kids play a variety of simple games, and was one of the earliest gaming consoles.
Meatloaf retro recipes: Here are three tasty ways to make the most of meatloaf. All it takes is a little imagination, and the special flavors you get only from Lipton recipe & soup mixes.
This vintage mid-century modern model home – the House & Garden magazine Hallmark House for 1963 – offered nearly 5000 square feet of beautiful 60s style.
Judging by audience response to PBS new children’s show, Zoom may turn into the kind if household word television hasn’t heard since the halcyon days of Uncle Milty.
Think of the California Avocado half as a natural salad bowl. The filling is a flavorful ham ’n egg salad blended with Kraft Real Mayonnaise.
Re-create that warm holiday feeling with an almond pudding loaf that’s will fill your home with the delicious aroma of home baking.
The Cadillac innovation mentioned herein was a two-speed rear axle, combined with a door-mounted, electrically-operated shifter which allowed the driver to change the rear axle
Vintage Fenton glass – candy dishes, bowls, vases, lamps, baskets and more – came in milk glass and in radiant colors.
This zesty purple Jell-o poke cake has stripes of flavor from a tangy blackberry gelatin! Not feeling so purple? You can swap in any other flavor of Jello to make this cake recipe all your own.
This no-bake banana pudding with vanilla wafers is such a spectacular dessert, you’d never dream it could be so quick and so easy to make. Bonus: Cooked banana pudding recipe.
When the infamous zeppelin airship Hindenburg caught fire and crashed as it was landing in New Jersey back in 1937, the spectacular disaster was caught on film and audio. Here’s how it went down.
To this day, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York on March 25, 1911, remains the deadliest industrial disaster in the city’s history,
When the now-classic Disney film Sleeping Beauty came out at the end of the 1950s, moviegoers around the world were enthralled by the technicolor wonder, created by hundreds of artists over the course of six years. Find out more here!
Practical ideas to help you plan small gardens of your own – a quiet, refreshing area close to your house where you can enjoy the plants and flowers you love!
This mid-century modern home design was created for a busy family of five, and in addition to the spacious floorplan, it glows with light, from huge windows and stunning clerestories.
How can you make this 10-minute no-bake peachy cheesecake recipe with no eggs, no flour, no cooking? With this delicious retro recipe from the sixties!
Vintage book clubs have been around since before the Depression – and while the titles have changed, the concept behind the membership isthe same. Here’s a look back!
On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 took off for the moon – a historic mission for Americans, and for people all around the globe. See vintage newspaper headlines from that day here!
Footloose stars Kevin Bacon as a dynamic Chicago teen transplanted to a morally numb heartland town, where the local ministerhas banned rock dancing.
More than one billion Colorforms sets have been sold since the ’50s. They started with basic geometric shapes, then moved on to branded playsets.
Take tic-tac-toe, toss in nine celebrities, stir in some questions and add fabulous prizes. What do you get? The original Hollywood Squares game show!
While boxes of Jell-O pudding pops may be but a memory, we can still remember their glory days through these magazine ads and TV commercials!
The Banana Splits Adventure Hour lasted only 31 episodes, but its funky psychedelia had a lasting impact. Take a look – and a listen!
Forget white or stainless steel – these colorful vintage kitchen sinks came in bright and bold colors like red, orange, green, yellow and more!
If you look back at old home photos and these vintage sculptured and textured carpets were seen – three-dimensional carved or twisted patterns – you can pretty much bet you’re looking at decor from the middle of the 20th century.
These old Plymouth Suburban station wagons from the ’50s were big and long with rear-facing back seats – and even had fins. Check ’em out here!
Take a look back at the 1968 Chrysler Imperial – a classic car that came in a four-door hardtop, coupe and LeBaron models, and offered a front seat that doubled as a 5-foot sofa.
In Hawaii in the ’70s, Waikiki was more than a beach. It’s a vibrant, exciting, cosmopolitan resort city on Oahu, only a few miles from bustling downtown Honolulu.
Who was Uncle Wiggily? Find out more about the author of these serials and Uncle Wiggily books, see examples of the characters and artwork, and look back at a copy of ‘Uncle Wiggily and His Friends’ that was published in 1955!
Here Come The Brides was an hour-long comedy/Western TV series set in Seattle in the 1870s about a family of loggers who brought in 100 women as potential brides. The show launched Bobby Sherman and David Soul as teen idols.
See several old brands of bottled 1950s orange soft drinks and sodas here! Some were sparking, but several of the fruity drinks were non-carbonated – and none were diet.
