Extra! Extra! Read All . . . ~ Part 2
. . . about it!
A tree representing the late 1800s - early 1900s can be found in the living room parlor. The tree is accented with garlands of popcorn and cranberries. In days gone by the dried apples would have added the fragrance of Christmas and would have been plentiful as this fruit would have been harvested from the orchards and kept in the cool cellars for eating all winter long. Candles would have lighted the tree of old. You can also see miniature antique baskets that adorn this tree. The antique wooden hat box is a perfect cover-up for this tree's stand.
Close-ups of the antique ornaments on tree.
The tree in the bedroom has been decorated to celebrate what children may have found under the tree over periods of time.
This colorful and delightful tree has been adorned with handmade ornaments created by the pre-school children at Holy Cross Lutheran School. Garlands of paper chain have been woven through the tree and lead us to ornaments with the names of the kiddos who made them. Victorian posies were made from paper and decorated with doilies. At Christmas these posies would have been filled with candy canes and fruit to delight children of all ages.
But the best ornaments of all are the "cookies" made of applesauce and cinnamon. The teacher said the entire school was filled with the wonderful scent of cloves and cinnamon that she warmed in the oven before they were added to mix to create the scented "clay". The children rolled out the clay and shapes of stars and trees and gingerbread men were created with cookie cutters. After drying the ornaments were strung with ribbon and now hang from the branches of this delightful tree
From the 1940s and 50s is the game of Cootie. We still have this game at our house and play it all of the time. It has now delighted three generations of Welches. I can remember when my sister, Jeanne, and I received it on Christmas morning when we still lived on Catherine Street (this was before the great flood of '57). It's been played with ever since. An eye here or a leg there may be missing, but we can still get the cootie to stand up and take notice.
An old-fashioned classic and family favorite for generations, dominoes.
Here's Lois Metzger's 1930s 3-burner stove. I'm pretty sure Lois was an adult when someone asked if she'd like to save an old toy, so I'm guessing she never really cooked on it. That being said, the frayed cord is still attached and gives us a peek into how toys were made then.
Our sincere gratitude to Lois Metzger and Carolyn Welch
for the photographs!
