christmas – LIFE

20 of the Most Joyful Christmas Photos of All Time

Mon, 21 Dec 2015 09:00:37 +0000

The holiday season is all about tidings of joy: a crackle in the fireplace, the twinkle of lights, perhaps one too many glasses of eggnog. And no matter the gravity of the stories in the news, LIFE captured that joy year in and year out. Most frequently, that process involved photographing some combination of children and Santa Claus, whether they tugged on his cotton-white beard or gaped in disbelief at some long-coveted doll. Here, as this year’s Christmas rolls around, are LIFE’s most joyful images of Christmases past.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Christmas 1946

Children talking to Santa Claus, 1946. (Frank Scherschel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1947

A young girl talking to Santa Claus on the telephone, 1947. (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1947

“Santa and Mrs. Claus” answering telephone calls in their workshop at F. A. O. Schwartz, 1947. (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1948

Santa Claus with a young girl, 1948. (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1948

Santa Claus Convention and training course at Waldorf Astoria, 1948. (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1948

Man showing Christmas decorations to children, 1948. (Hank Walker / The LIFE Images Collection)

Christmas 1951

Tana Centero sitting in front of a Christmas tree, Vermont, 1951. (Esther Bubley / The LIFE Images Collection)

Christmas 1953

A family celebrates Christmas, 1953. (Robert W. Kelley / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1954

Baby tasting a piece of metallic tinsel dangling from a Christmas tree, 1954. (Verner Reed / The LIFE Images Collection)

Christmas 1955

A little girl looking at doll through a window at Christmas time, 1955. (Ralph Morse / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1956

Mrs. George Sutton and her family decorating their Christmas tree at home, 1956. (Ralph Crane / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1956

Preparations for Christmas pageant at Bryn Mawr Community Church, 1956. (Francis Miller / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1957

Scene from the “Trail to Christmas” adaptation of Charles Dicken’s “Christmas Carol,” 1957. (Allan Grant / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1958

Children’s Christmas play, 1958. (Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1958

Young Santa Claus in a Christmas program at Elizabeth Morrow School, 1958. (Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1961

Ken Berends and Bill Burslem practice a soft-shoe with faculty member Joy Merkel in Santa Claus training class at Santa Claus School, 1961. (Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1962

Tina Smith decorating a Christmas tree at Guantanamo Naval Base, where her dad, Lt. Commander Joe Smith is stationed, 1962. (John Dominis / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1962

Little girl giving Santa Claus a kiss, 1962. (Donald Uhrbrock / The LIFE Images Collection)

Christmas 1970

Young child visiting Santa Claus at a department store, 1970. (Ralph Morse / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Christmas 1972

Raymond and Susie McFarland looking raptly at their new Airedale puppy, who’s leaning towards them out of Christmas gift box, 1972. (Ralph Crane / The LIFE Picture Collection)

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Holiday Jeer: Good-for-Nothing Gifts From Back in the Day

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 09:31:38 +0000

In 1953 LIFE featured a number of gifts that, the magazine assured its readers, were far “better to give than to receive.” For our part, after spending a little time with these photos by Yale Joel, we’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that, with one or two exceptions (those velvet glasses acting as a hairnet are kind of cool), these items are preposterous whether one is giving or receiving.

As LIFE noted in its December 7, 1953 issue:

When a sequined $7.50 fly swatter turned out to be one of the best-selling gifts last Christmas (a time of year when flies are rare), department stores were quick to turn its success into a trend. This year the country’s gift counters abound in homely household objects which have been gilded, bedecked with pearls and rhinestones and upped in price. Holiday shoppers whose main object is to pamper the recipient may now choose jeweled back-scratchers which are almost too pretty to use, velvet eyeglasses which are designed to be worn instead of a hat, time-pieces for pets who can not tell time. Here is a selection of this year’s silly Christmas gifts.

Thank goodness we’ve evolved as a society and as individuals to the point where ridiculous and overpriced presents are no longer on anyone’s wish list. Right?

Absurd Christmas Gifts 1953

Caption from LIFE: “Sleep mask for light sleepers is satin-edged in gold braid, has gold eyelashes, brows and twinkling rhinestone stars.” (Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Absurd Christmas Gifts 1953

Caption from LIFE: “A back-scratcher encrusted with gilt, pearls and sea shells is an expensive adaptation of a standard 39-cent model.” (Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Absurd Christmas Gifts 1953

Caption from LIFE: “Work gloves with red felt fingernails and a big ring on the wedding finger.” (Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Absurd Christmas Gifts 1953

Caption from LIFE: “Velvet glasses with net lenses, based on the theory that there are women who wear spectacles to hold their hair back.” (Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Absurd Christmas Gifts 1953

Caption from LIFE: “Spray gun is coated with gilt and trimmed with bee and flowers, might be used on household pests when company is around.” (Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Absurd Christmas Gifts 1953

Caption from LIFE: “Swiss watch adorning gold collar, maker says, prompts wearer to bark to go out. Compass in place of watch costs $22.” (Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Absurd Christmas Gifts 1953

Caption from LIFE: “Leopard print gives a frivolous look to knitted nylon pants and bra. This is a useful notion of the season, being an economical substitute for the expensive fancy lingerie many men like to give as presents. The spots, which make fabric opaque, do not change with washing.” (Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Absurd Christmas Gifts 1953

Caption from LIFE: “Glasses have no lenses, but feature what looks to be a costume jewelry tear-drop dangling from the frame.” (Yale Joel / The LIFE Picture Collection)

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Hitler’s Christmas Party

Sun, 01 Dec 2013 16:42:50 +0000

The images are chilling, bordering on surreal: Surrounded by fellow Nazis, Adolf Hitler presides over a Christmas party. Swastika armbands jarringly offset the glint of ornaments and tinsel; candles illuminate the festive scene. Confronted with the scene, a viewer might reasonably ask: How could Nazi leaders reconcile an ideology of hatred, conquest and extermination with the joyous spirit of the holiday, much less its celebration of the birth of the Jewish Christ?

In 1937 Nazi propagandist Friedrich Rehm in 1937 actually argued that “real” Germans should remove any vestiges of “oriental” religion from the holiday by harking back to the pagan Yule, an ancient Northern European festival of the winter solstice. He said, “We cannot accept that a German Christmas tree has anything to do with a crib in a manger in Bethlehem. It is inconceivable for us that Christmas and all its deep soulful content is the product of an oriental religion.” An eye-opening 2009 exhibit at Cologne’s National Socialism Documentation Centre featured early Nazi propaganda attempts to make over the holiday: swastika-shaped cookie-cutters; sunburst tree-toppers to replace the traditional ornament Nazis feared looked too much like the Star of David; rewritten lyrics to carols that excised all references to Christ.

But by the time Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese had dragged the Allies into the Second World War, the Reich’s focus had shifted to more practical matters. Rather than trying to dissuade millions of Germans from celebrating Christmas the way they had for generations, Hitler, Goebbels and the rest instead encouraged their compatriots to send cards and care packages to the troops.

As for the religious views of Hitler himself, the evidence is hardly conclusive: In public statements he sometimes praised Christianity (once calling it “the foundation of our national morality”), but in private conversations—including one recalled by the Third Reich’s official architect, Albert Speer—the Führer is said to have abhorred the faith for what he deemed its “meekness and flabbiness.”

Hitler did, of course, fervently worship one thing above all else: the so-called Aryan race. Looking at the utterly banal, ordinary faces and figures in these photographs, however, it’s hard to believe that anyone, no matter how fanatical or deluded, could believe that the men at that long-ago holiday party comprised anything more than a roomful of gangsters and common thugs.

Scene from a Christmas party attended by Adolf Hitler and other Nazis, date unknown.

Hugo Jaeger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Christmas Wishes: Photos of Kids on the Phone With Santa, 1947

Sun, 01 Dec 2013 15:14:15 +0000

This little girl is talking to Santa Claus, and so may any other girl or boy who telephones Murray Hill 8-2205 in New York between now and Christmas.

Thus reads a photo caption in a December 15, 1947 LIFE magazine story about some holiday subterfuge devised by the famed New York toy store, FAO Schwarz. The clever gambit involved an FAO-produced phone system on which children could dial that number (MU8-2205) and speak directly to Santa himself, laying out their wishes for the holiday: world peace, universal human fellowship, a train set, a bunny, a briefcase.

Here, LIFE.com presents photos by Martha Holmes from that article as well as some other “Awww”-inspiring pictures that never ran in the magazine.

Calling Santa, 1947

Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection

Calling Santa, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Patricia Guinan promises to leave out milk and crackers for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, 1947.” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Bann Kernan, who is 7 years old, squirms with delight as she asks Santa for a wrist watch. Moments later she gave the phone to her younger brother, Bennie, 5, who requested a train.” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Jo Ann Ward began with aplomb by saying, ‘Hello, Santa Claus. How you feel?'” The three-year-old wanted a doll and a boat.” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “‘After making sure he could not hear and be disillusioned,’ Bann Kernan ‘whispered confidingly to the LIFE researcher’ that there is “no Santa Claus,” while brother Bennie remained blissfully unaware.'” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Elaine Jung is 6, wants a doll’s house and carriage, also asked Santa to be sure not to forget her baby sister.” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Jimmy O’Brien, 4, asked for a bike and a sailboat. When Santa asked where he lived, he said, ‘You know where.'” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Christopher Lange, the son of Poland’s U.N. delegate Oscar Lange is nearly 8 years old and a firm believer in Santa Claus. He showed his official background by requesting the badge of the profession, a briefcase, for Christmas. (He also asked for a paint set.)” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection

F.A.O. Schwarz, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Santa Himself and Mrs. Claus, who sometimes wear red coats to keep in character, answer calls at the Schwarz workshop.” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

F.A.O. Schwarz, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Schwarz’s President, Philip Kirkham, used to play Santa for the benefit of special customers’ children by shouting good cheer up a dumbwaiter shaft.” The first time he did it, employees thought he was ‘a little daft.'” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Martha Holmes/ The LIFE Picture Collection

Calling Santa, 1947

Caption from LIFE: “Bann Kernan, 7, calls Santa.” (Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection)

Calling Santa, 1947

Martha Holmes / The LIFE Picture Collection

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Becoming Father Christmas: LIFE Goes to Santa School

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:08:23 +0000

Some Santas are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. And then there are those happy fellows who have taken a week-long class in all things Father Christmas, and come out the other side with a coveted B.S.C. degree (Bachelor of Santa Claus).

Such was the fate of those who, for years, chose to take instruction at Charles Howard’s Santa Claus School in the upstate New York town of Albion, not far from Rochester. In fact, the school, founded in 1937, still exists; since the mid-1960s, it has operated out of Midland, Mich., and remains the world’s oldest Santa school.

In 1961, LIFE’s Alfred Eisenstaedt visited Howard’s school for would-be Santas, and made a series of photos chronicling the evidently quite fun process of learning to be all the Santa Claus one can be. (Many of the pictures here were not originally published in the article that ran in LIFE.) In its Nov. 17, 1961, issue, LIFE shared the lighthearted goings-on at the school with its readers:

In Albion, N.Y., Charles Howard (right) runs the country’s only school of its kind for Santas and this fall has graduated 15, most sent up for training by department stores. Howard himself is the nation’s No. 1 Santa, the one who waves from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
Howard’s school gives a Santa’s Helper degree after a five-day, $75 course and a post-graduate B.S.C. (Bachelor of Santa Claus).
He teaches the history of Santa Claus, make-up and costumes (“Don’t use false eyebrows — let your own grow”), Christmas stories and how to be jolly. He tells how to cope with young hazards Santa may find in his lap. There is the tear-spiller (“All you can do is get his mind off what’s bothering him”) and the shin-kicker (“Santa is no reformer so don’t spend much time with him”). Most dangerous of all is the beard-yanker. “When you see a devilish gleam in the eye,” he says, “you know you’ve got one. So you grab your beard underneath, hold tight and when he yanks, holler ‘Ouch.'”

Finally, we’ll end with one of Howard’s more memorable quotes about St. Nick, and the power of belief in an age of doubt: “To say there is no Santa Claus is the most erroneous statement in the world. Santa Claus is a thought that is passed from generation to generation. After time this thought takes on a human form. Maybe if all children and adults understand the symbolism of this thought we can actually attain Peace on Earth and good will to men everywhere.”

Original caption: “On third day of school, Marine John Ray learns how to squint his eyes into a Santa twinkle. His wig and beard are of yak hair. Ray will work at the W. G. Swartz store in Norfolk, Va.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

Santa school, 1961

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

Santa Claus school, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

Original caption: “John Ray holds the diploma naming him a Santa’s helper. Next year he can work for B.S.C. degree. To get it he will have to present recommendations from customers and write 1,500-word thesis.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

Santa Claus school, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

Santa School, 1961

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

Santa Claus school, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

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