Christmas in the 1960s had a look all its own. Living rooms glowed with the warm, colored lights of aluminum trees and bubble lights, while families gathered around console TVs to watch the season’s holiday specials for the first time. Kids opened wrapping paper to find Easy-Bake Ovens, toy soldiers, and the latest Barbie dolls, and department store windows on Main Street turned into small wonderlands of animated displays and twinkling lights. It was a decade of big change in America, but Christmas still meant the same things it always had: family and a house full of noise and laughter.
The following 19 photos take you back to those simpler holiday mornings, when Santa still visited the mall in person, and the biggest excitement was seeing what waited under the tree. These images show a Christmas that felt slower and closer, even as the rest of the world moved fast. Here is a look back at how America celebrated this season sixty years ago.
1. When Grandma Said “Bring a Friend to Christmas”
2. The Only Christmas Tradition Nobody Wanted: Vacuuming the Tree
3. Downtown Went All In on Christmas
4. 1969: The Year Santa’s Backdrop Tried Way Too Hard
5. The Official Christmas Morning Inspector
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6. “We Definitely Overdid It This Year”
7. She’s Feeling the Christmas Spirit but The Cat Is Not
8. The Doll Everyone Remembers
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9. Coordinated Outfits
10. One Happy Kid with Dolls Straight Out of a Horror Movie
11. Girls unwrapping Barbie and Zippy Zither
12. She Didn’t Just Wrap the Presents, She Became One
13. “Say Cheese”: The Least Enthusiastic Christmas Photo of 1966
14. That Coat Wasn’t Made for Subtlety
15. His Face Says It All
16. The Year They Decided Christmas Tree Needed to Match the Living Room
17. Peak 60s Confidence
18. Proof That Love Kept Everyone Warm in the 60s
19. The Table That Fed an Army of Feelings
20. Kid Very Awake & Adult Ready for Nap Number Two
Interested in more Holiday content?
Take a trip through 15 of the Highest-Grossing Holiday Movies and revisit the box-office giants that turned Christmas magic into serious money. Then see how time has treated the young film stars in 20 Photos of Famous Holiday Movies Kids All Grown Up, a fun look at the child actors we all grew up watching. And for a lighter dose of seasonal chaos, don’t miss 17 Funny Signs That Summon Holiday Cheer (and a Few Eye Rolls), packed with the hilarious signage the holidays bring out every year.
