COLLECTION #125: Vintage Santas

It's the nature of collections that there be some cross-over- things that fit into more than one category. Thus it is with Christmas collectibles. Some of these vintage Santa Clauses (is it permissible to pluralize 'Santa Claus'?) were in other collections. I hope you don't mind! But I do have some fun Santas here that I wanted to put together into one big group. There's ephemera: cards, wall decorations, hangers, Christmas carol booklet; toys, a salt shaker, Christmas cards, and a candy box. Just some fun Santas from mostly the 1940s and 1950s.

Cute li'l Santa Salt Shaker. I wonder what happened to the pepper?

A favorite... this Santa stands about 12" tall, it's a give-away from Richfield Gas Stations.

1950s articulated Santa wall decoration

Christmas dolls

Candy box

Vintage Christmas carol booket... belonged to my husband's grandmother. And don't you forget it!

Super-cute Christmas cards for a child.

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Me! (Part 2)

I promised I'd come back and post more of my house & where I keep my various collections- here is part two, my upstairs. I don't keep collections everywhere, but I do have two main areas upstairs where I keep things.  The first is our upstairs landing- it's a very large open area at the top of our stairs, and I have 6 bookshelves full of books and goodies.  [Sadly, my Nikon camera died 2 days ago, so I used my iPhone camera to take these photos... they aren't the finest quality, especially indoors, but they will have to do for now!]
I'll start by sharing the photos of each of these shelves & treasures, then go to area #2.

My first shelf is full of children's books of all kinds- old and newer, classics and obscure. It's really hard for me to get rid of anything!

These are mostly classics- including Little Golden Books, Laura Ingells Wilder, etc.

Next is a vintage Ethan Allen set of shelves and desk/ cupboard units. I keep all of my LDS Church books. The left side is mostly modern ones, the right side has a lot of old, historical church books.

This desk belonged to my husband Bruce as a child. I keep it stocked with vintage school supplies and my Dick and Jane readers.

More vintage school readers & work books.

The plaque is a copy of an article about me in Playthings Magazine,  October 2004, featuring my school book collection.

This tall shelf includes school arithmetic, science, readers, music, art, geography, and social studies books.

Children's reference books, history, geography and vintage magazines.

In addition to my schoolbooks and accessories, I have school photos of Bruce's grandfather, and my Mom's high school graduation photo.

Next, we go into my studio. You can see all of the various treasures I have there.

As a toy designer, I have many toy reference books: books about dolls, games, toys, and also books about pop culture, collecting, travel, and reference- plus lots of dolls and toys on display.

I also have a variety of stuffed animals & other critters.

Here are my robots...

.... and my pedal cars and some of my kaleidoscopes.

This shelf has a couple of the toys I've designed, and a photo of me with a Cabbage Patch Kid I designed when I worked at Mattel.

An old Lifesavers display rack holds games, boxes, and a plethora of stuffed dogs and critters.

COLLECTION #18: Building Toys

Welcome to Toy Tuesday! Today my collection is building toys, specifically toys sold in lovely cardboard tubes. Tinker Toys, which were invented in 1914, began selling their wonderful building sets in cardboard tubes from the very beginning, and imitators followed suit. Inexpensive, compact and sturdy, these tubes could be easily stored and carried around, unlike awkward boxes. Even today, Hasbro's Tinker Toys are sold in the same colorful cylindrical containers.

Although their contents are meager, I have a few of these building toys in their 'cans'. I love the graphics, and the way they look on my toy shelf, towering over their neighbor toys.

Notice, the Pixie Build-A-Toy at the left was made by the Steven Mfg. Co, the came company that made most of my kaleidoscopes! They were a fun company, and I love the whimsical artwork they used on all of their products.

More important than the containers, were the toys themselves, which provided hours and hours of creative building fun. I wonder how many architects and industrial designers got their start making structures with Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs? It makes me want to build something!