More "vintage" Christmas

This is Christmas 1971 - Randy got his Big Wheels bike and Alan got his electric football game. I think Arlan got his Erector set that year. In looking closely at the photo, I think Tonita and I got dolls that we put on our beds for decoration. Mine was named Stacy, and I think I still have her somewhere... I know Tonita still has hers.

I love these photos since they show what a free-for-all it was when we opened our gifts. This must have been the first year that Santa wrapped our gifts. In previous years, they were arranged unwrapped under the tree (which always stayed lit all night from Christmas Eve til Christmas morning). I don't know why Mom decided to wrap them, but I remember her telling us that was going to happen (could it be the couple of years before when we kids got up at like, 3 a.m. and played Hot Wheels with the racing track that was set up?).

I remember that Randy rode that Big Wheel to death - we were all so excited that he got one since they were just new to the toy market at that time.

Alan's electric football game was fun for the whole family. We'd set up our guys in whatever formation Alan told us to, then turn on the "field". The box would vibrate and our guys would move in whatever direction it shook them.

If you take a look at the tree, you'll see the ornaments made from gluing circles of wrapping paper together to form a sphere. I always enjoyed making those.

I see the tree in these photos and the ones from 1970 is the artificial one that Mom bought at Hested's. She paid $15 for it and was so worried that Dad would be mad about how much it was, but was convinced it would save them money since they wouldn't have to purchase a tree every year. Dad wasn't mad, and that tree was used for a few decades. Mom gave it to me when Greg and I first got married, and we used it until the kids were old enough to enjoy going out and picking a fresh one to cut down, so I suppose that artificial one was close to 25 years old by the time I donated it to the resale shop.
You can also see Dad is fresh out of bed. Christmas was the one day of the year that no matter how early we got up and woke up our parents, they got right up and joined us in the living room. No fussing, no sending us back to bed. And Christmas day started early in the Regier household! :o)