"Lying in our box
magic toys:
silver stars,
garlands and crackers."
A. Usachev
So today I remember my childhood and all the impressions of the pre-holiday mood of the upcoming New Year. The magic of Christmas decorations... The celebration of the moment when a stepladder was placed, and one of the parents slowly climbed the stairs to get the cherished box from the mezzanine, in which the magical paraphernalia of the January holidays was kept. And we, melting our breath, inseparably looked up. The house was filled with the smell of a breathing, revived Christmas tree, which traditionally stood in the corner of the room.
We children had favorite toys and decorations. I really liked the cardboard ones... These were cockerels, bunnies, butterflies, birds, sailboats... Maybe because they were warm to the touch, I wanted to hold them longer, look at them, there was no fear of accidentally breaking them. They did not shimmer like mirror balls in which you could see your funny reflection, they were not attached to a branch with a clothespin. The fastening was in the form of an ordinary loop of twisted thread.
And what a spruce without beads! Without serpentine, without cotton wool, without tinsel, garlands with multi-colored light bulbs... The crown of a coniferous beauty was traditionally crowned with a star or a pike.. Later, bows, angels and even hats appeared... And it is absolutely impossible to imagine the New Year without candles!
A reverent and tender attitude came very early and remained forever with the snowmen ... Outside the window from the snow, in toys, on postcards. She was quite calm about the wadded Santa Claus in a traditional red coat and the Snow Maiden with a pink-cheeked face, who had the honor of guarding an elegant forest guest adorned with jewels.
Tangerines, apples, sweets, gingerbread swaying on strings peacefully coexisted with purchased and home-made toys... And that was also magic. Because all this was then eaten and seemed unusually tasty, with the aroma of resin and forest. But the most unforgettable moment was New Year's morning, when we found gifts under the Christmas tree... And implicitly believed that Santa Claus himself, who had flown in from Veliky Ustyug, put them there... And every time I wanted to see the sacrament of his coming to the house and every time we did not succeed, because the winters were frosty and snowy, and the dreams after the walks were strong and fabulous. But it always seemed to me that one of the Snowmen, who had been vigilantly guarding our yard almost all winter, wanted to suggest the time of arrival in his snowman language, however, he was careful not to anger the main figure of the holiday ... He only smiled slyly with his mouth painted or in the form of a curved twig and gleamed corner eyes...
Once and forever entered my life and heart "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery - the best New Year's gift from childhood, found under the Christmas tree. And in December of the outgoing year, director Mark Osborne pleased us with an animated film about the Little Prince, who said such simple, but such symbolic words for all time: "We are responsible for those we tamed"...
Happy New Year! Happiness, joy, peace, smiles, kindness and love!
Reviews
Dear Natochka, magical New Year Holidays
many memories evoke the past.
Thanks for the wonderful story! very touching and
in tune with my soul! I send you, my good Natasha,
the warmest congratulations on the Holidays of Zimushka
Happy New Year 2017!
Happy Christmas Day!
With the miraculous Feast of Christmas!
I wish you happiness, joy, prosperity!
Love and kindness! With affection, Tanya
Tanya, thank you very much for your warmth and heartfelt kindness! It's always nice to see and hear!
May the coming year be bright and joyful for you in love, health and grace!
I hug you, my dear!
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4713
26.12.2014
The upside of modern Christmas decorations is that most of them are made of plastic or other unbreakable material. But, as my grandmother says: “It’s not the same anymore” ...
Lydia Trofimovna, my grandmother, found Christmas decorations in a box, the age of which deserves respect and admiration.
The oldest toys are made of pressed cardboard and papier-mâché. They were released after 1947. Such figurines, grandmother says, resemble pre-revolutionary “Dresden” cardboard toys. Pieces of embossed cardboard were covered with silver foil and then spray-painted with powder paints. For my grandmother, they are of particular value, because they keep the memories of the first peaceful years.
Another New Year's relic in our family is a heavy ball of thick glass - from 1949. Previously, he had a pair of pink, together they glowed in the dark, but only the pink ball broke, sliding off a weak spruce branch, and the phosphor paint was so worn on the green that one can only guess about its former splendor.
Confetti from 1973
Believe it or not, even a bag of 1973 confetti has been preserved. Opened out of curiosity. Colored circles made from old magazines. On some, even printed letters are clearly visible. And the bag cost 13 kopecks.
There are toys on clothespins that are convenient to place on the lower branches of the Christmas tree. According to my grandmother, they come from the early 1970s.
Plastic fairy-tale characters - hedgehogs, foxes - have gathered with us in large numbers, Grandmother dates them to 1964.
Toy fruits on our Christmas tree flaunted often. The color, however, did not always match the original - blue raspberry, steel bean pod ...
Old Christmas decorations are like a little history book. In addition to corn
cobs, fairy-tale heroes and figurines of people in national costumes, after the first flight into space, a lot of space-themed toys appeared. So we still have two astronauts.
By the way, on auction sites, such toys can be sold from 50 thousand rubles apiece to 500 thousand. But I am in no hurry to change the magic of the New Year for money.
The task of the hollow plastic grandfather is to stand under the tree in a layer of cotton wool strewn with fallen needles. The paint was peeling off the nose and cheeks quickly, so that the grandfathers sported a bold make-up of mom's nail polish. The only pink one. His older brother, cotton Santa Claus, looked more monumental, and was more pleasant to the touch, but he lost his stuffing over the years.
Snowflakes and stars from glass tubes
RuscompasThese air toys still look quite futuristic, but then children's hands tried to take them apart for spare parts, so that later they could assemble something more interesting from fragile tubes. Well, or just to test for strength. Crunch!
Cucumber and eggplant
Glass vegetables appeared on sale in the 60s and looked very fashionable - bright, beautiful. It's a pity that decorating a Christmas tree in a themed style was not yet accepted.
Balloons
They fought about the same, but they were all beautiful in different ways. They were simply smooth, or with snow powder, or in the form of a hemisphere and with a star-shaped recess. Entrepreneurial and creative parents decorated the outfits of Snowflakes and Snow Maidens with fragments of balloons.
cones
The second most popular after the balls. It was especially valuable to have a pink cone with a white topping, but most often I came across ordinary, silver ones.
Boy on a clothespin
These colored glass figurines were very beautiful - I just wanted to drag them off and play with them. But it was almost impossible to firmly fix them on the Christmas tree paw - they lurched and fell.
cardboard fish
It is good because it does not beat, which means it will survive many Christmas trees.
Apple and pear made of cotton papier-mâché
As a child, these toys seemed completely unattractive - some kind of dull, on a wire, no luxury. But now they look very nostalgic.
Christmas tree top
The most beautiful and most fragile consisted of two or three balls with shiny recesses (but the top of the Christmas tree still had to be filed under it).
Garland of light bulbs
To make the Christmas tree blink beautifully and mysteriously, a garland of small corrugated light bulbs, similar to lampshades, was taken out of the box. In some places it is rewound with blue electrical tape, half of the bulbs are not lit. And there was also a fashionable garland "Metelitsa" - light bulbs sat in plastic nests in the form of snowflakes.
Red Spasskaya Tower
Strictly speaking, gifts were given out in this plastic box at the Kremlin Christmas tree (and other, slightly less important, Christmas trees). But the tower then for years took its place of honor next to Santa Claus in the New Year's installation.
paper lantern
Homemade colored paper lanterns are a must for any Christmas tree. We fold one tube, fold and cut the other with a fringe, connect, straighten - beauty!
A competition that was held several years ago. People posted photos of old Christmas decorations and told stories of their appearance in their homes. All photos are amateur, but the toys are real and most likely, some of them are also found in our homes ...
1. Our family has a small collection of old Christmas toys. They came to us in different ways: something was inherited, something was presented by friends, something was found at flea markets. But this Santa Claus with the Snow Maiden probably has the most interesting story of how they ended up under our Christmas tree.
Once my daughter and grandmother went to visit an old neighbor. She started an analysis of all sorts of unnecessary things, took out this Santa Claus from the mezzanine and threw him into a pile of garbage for disposal. My daughter got him and said that she would take him home, because she really, really needed him. Our delight knew no bounds - we never had such a grandfather!
We decided that he would be sad alone and we urgently needed to look for his granddaughter. For several weeks we rushed around various flea markets in search of the right Snow Maiden, and now, when we almost despaired, she was finally found - she was so unhappy in a box with assorted dishes and broken records.
We immediately understood - this is She, the very only granddaughter! Of course, she was bought and solemnly brought to her grandfather. Now they do not part with each other and their life is slowly flowing among Christmas decorations - their peers. And we are very grateful to them for choosing our house to live in it, we hope for many, many years! Here is such a story! Happy New Year, everyone! (c) Sona.
2. These New Year's toys were given to me by my beloved grandmother. Now she is twice a great-grandmother and in January she turns 80 years old! All my Christmas trees from childhood were decorated with these toys ...
The oldest is a bird made of cotton wool, the most patriotic is a ball with a red star, the most fabulous are toys on clothespins (a cheerful clown, a snow maiden in a brilliant outfit and not at all scary Baba Yaga). And of course, the New Year's watch, which, it turns out, has been preserved by many ...
Our family values these toys very much, despite the fact that over time they lose their luster. They are from the past and keep the spirit of those distant times. These toys have a soul! I still believe in Christmas miracles! (c)bel-mama.
3. Perhaps no one knows the full history of these toys. I remember how my mother was decorating the Christmas tree, and I watched, climbing on the sofa with my feet and holding my breath, I was terribly worried. After all, if a thin thread breaks, the toy will turn into a myriad of colorful fragments. But the thread, in my memory, never broke.
A lot of time has passed since then. The cool needles with the smell of resin were forced out of the house by a synthetic rival. And colorful plastic balls have not been afraid of any fall for a long time. But in the pantry, under a pile of all this festive tinsel, the cherished box with old toys is still stored.
“Throw away this junk,” my mother advises every year, bumping into a box. - We accumulated it in our first marriage. Anyway, you don’t hang it on the Christmas tree anymore. ” She, of course, is right, I haven’t hung for a long time. That's just a thin thread of childhood memories still keeps these toys in the house. (c) Bri.
5. My husband has an old grandmother. Once we went to visit her, and she asked for help in dismantling old things. On the mezzanine, my husband and I found an old plywood suitcase.
With great difficulty, we opened it (the locks were out of order) and ... lo and behold! There, lined with tissue paper, lay several Christmas decorations! It turned out that she bought these toys in Moscow when she went to some study courses.
Glass toys at that time were a luxury, especially here, in the far north. Housemates came to admire them! When grandma's children were small, Christmas decorations took their place on the Christmas tree. But for the last fifty years they have been lying quietly in a suitcase on the highest shelf. And now we hung them on our Christmas tree! (c)sabirova
6. In our apartment, 2 things have been preserved that passed to us from my grandmother: this is a toy and a mirror. For me, both of these things are extraordinarily beautiful and valuable. Next door to her grandmother's house was the house of her older friend, whom she helped with the housework. And being already in a weakened state, for kindness and support, a friend, during her lifetime, gave my grandmother a few things dear to her heart.
The New Year's toy looks bulky, but inside it is hollow, fragile and consists of 2 glued parts. Before me, it was already preserved in a decayed form with a tattered ribbon. I once replaced the rope and connected both parts together. On the front of the toy there is a place for some kind of image, the presence of which the parents no longer remember. (c) telef.
7. For me and my family, beads have become the main decoration of the New Year tree for many years. I inherited these beads from my grandparents, who died when I was about 7 years old.
They were bought by my grandmother when my father was not yet 10 years old, and he is now 53 years old, so it is also the oldest thing in our house. I am sure that my children will keep these beads as carefully as I do. (c) Oksi10.
8. My grandparents live in Ukraine. I rarely visit them .. maybe once every 3 years and usually in the summer. But one day I decided to make a New Year's gift and come to them for the holiday. When I saw this toy on the Christmas tree, I simply could not contain my emotions. I didn’t even think that our leaders were once captured on toys!
On one ball flaunted 3 personalities at once: Vladimir Ilyich, Iosif Vissarionovich and Leonid Ilyich. Because Since I teach history at school, I immediately began to beg for this toy from the old people, emphasizing that the Christmas tree in the history class must be filled with history ..
But I was told that this is a long-standing gift from friends and gifts are not re-gifted. This toy was traded by me for a promise to come in the summer. The exchange took place and I kept my word. (c) joki.
9. New Year's bunny. (c)ERICA-BMW.
10. Cheerful clown. Real retro 50s. (c) cat2008.
11. When I was in the 2nd grade (now I am 49 years old), at our school on the "New Year Tree", there was a competition for the best New Year's costume, I was in a snowflake costume, sewn by my mother from gauze and New Year's beads.
I thought that my costume was the most beautiful, but after summing up the results of the competition, my outfit went unnoticed. I was very upset. My teacher noticed this. She took two New Year's toys from the school tree: a small yellow teapot and a girl in a flower costume and gave them to me, saying that I had a very beautiful costume. I was delighted and was very happy and satisfied, my mood immediately rose.
It was in 1967, I still remember my kind teacher, whose name was Zoya Stepanovna, and for all these years I have been very careful about these New Year's toys, they are the most expensive for me! (c) Nattali.
12. The history of our toys is funny and a little touching. They were purchased by my grandfather, or rather exchanged for a couple of packs of cigarettes and a "bubble"))). These are the first toys in our family.
This story is also funny because my grandfather, for the birth of my mother, gave my grandmother not flowers and jewelry, but a Christmas tree and New Year's toys! Because my mother was born on New Year's Eve. So for three generations, these "family treasures" have been "protected". (c)ira2007.
13. I had a lot of Christmas decorations! Boxes with glass Snow Maidens, sets of cones, balls, garlands ... And every New Year they bought me more and more. But I wanted exactly the same as in the photo! And they were not in our stores! But, my girlfriend had just such!
Her mother raised her alone and did not spoil her much, and therefore she had few toys. Of course, I shared my toys with her, gave them away for good, changed. But these: 2 flashlights, a nesting doll and a chicken on clothespins, she didn’t give me back and didn’t even want to change! How I wanted them!
Every New Year, Sveta hung them on her Christmas tree, and I came and looked at them with admiration. They were shiny, over time the toys darkened and faded, but then, in childhood, they were very beautiful! A few years later, we were already in high school, a friend brought them to me for the New Year and gave them away.
It was the best gift ever! Now I always hang them on my Christmas tree, and my friend comes to celebrate the New Year with me. (c) Ulala.
14. I got these toys from my grandmother. Unfortunately, half were broken. But there are still 20 left. I decorate my favorite little Christmas tree with them. When friends of my parents come to visit, they always say that some special “energy” comes from my Christmas tree))))) (c) Ardy.
15. We got this old Christmas tree toy from our grandmother, she took apart the mezzanine about 20 years ago and decided to give us this ball. (c) Kelly.
16. We try to celebrate the New Year as often as possible with our grandmother in the village. On many toys the paint has already worn off and they have a special "old" smell from the past..
Surprisingly, none of the numerous relatives buys modern toys for Grandma's Christmas tree, everyone wants to see these very ones: unusual, shabby ones that have gone through various events together with a large grandmother's family. This Snow Maiden was already left without Santa Claus, but surrounded by toys similar to her. (c) Lol.
17. These three balls seem to me the oldest of those Christmas decorations that have been preserved in our family. Although, to be honest, I don't know how old they are. Papier-mâché balls are made and consist of two halves.
The halves can be separated and put inside some small object. I remember these balls all my life, they always hung on my grandmother's tree, and my brother and I raced to look for them on the tree in order to quickly open and find something interesting inside (usually it was sweets).
Alas, my grandmother is no longer in the world and I did not think in time to ask where these balls came from. I only remember that they are German. Now the balls are a little cracked, they had to be glued several times, but they still decorate the Christmas tree, and now my daughter is looking for something interesting inside. (c) davele.
18. Once, it was a set of gingerbread with deer. Reindeer glow in the dark, 35 years have passed, only one, the last, has passed. Let's save it! (c)13tata777.
19. I am very proud that I have such toys in my collection, I cherish them very much, but, nevertheless, I use them - every year I hang them on my Christmas tree, because it is a sin to hide such beauty in a velvet box!
And what makes me especially happy is that wonderful cardboard decorations are very well preserved - embossed, on mother-of-pearl paper. I liked them the most, because they could be looked at for a long time, traced on paper with a pencil, and more (most importantly) - they could not be broken!
I have a special funny story connected with these cardboard toys - once, when I was little, my parents decided to surprise me - they set up and decorated the Christmas tree to their taste with elegant puffed balls and glass fairy-tale characters while I was sleeping. But in the morning I burst into tears, not seeing my favorite cardboard fish, chickens and especially my favorite sailboat on the Christmas tree!
Parents were confused and could not understand what they had done and how they had brought their child to tears! Then, of course, together we hung my favorite figurines on the Christmas tree - and after that everything immediately fell into place! Childhood memories - that's what these cardboard, simple, but very dear to my heart decorations keep. (c) Liubashka.
20. This is always my favorite toy on the Christmas tree since childhood, when I really wanted to have a dog. She is probably even older than my grandmother. Unfortunately, I don’t know how she appeared with us, and my grandmother no longer remembers. It is stored very carefully and is always hung in the most prominent place. (c) anka-bk.
21. This toy hangs on our Christmas tree every year, since my earliest childhood! And every year, with pleasant nostalgia and even with that same childish feeling of a fairy tale, I hang it on a Christmas tree, sit down next to it and, looking at it, remember the amazing tales that my parents told me on behalf of this funny old forest man! (c) Prelest2008.
22. This toy is insanely dear to me and my whole family! The fact is that my grandfather gave this toy to my mother. Then my mom and dad just met, they decided to celebrate the New Year together!
Decorating the Christmas tree, dad dropped this luxurious toy and it shattered to smithereens…. The next day, dad spent looking for the same decoration and found it!
Mom was very happy, but they didn’t say anything to grandfather! Since then, this toy hangs on each of our Christmas trees! Mom says that this crystal flower blossomed together with her and dad's love! (c) Lineq.
23. These skates have been passed down from generation to generation to every woman in my family. My great-great and many more times "great" grandfather brought them from Finland, tied a wedding ring to them and proposed to my great-great and several more times "great" grandmother! Here is such a small and instructive story! (c) Hello Kitty.
24. I got this toy from my great-grandmother. She made it from improvised means. Because there was nothing before. This was after the war. Of course, we have refurbished it a bit. Because it is a great memory. And even though now there are thousands of modern toys in stores, but for me there is nothing more valuable than this one! The toy is almost a century old! (c) alexawest.
25. Some time ago, balls with bows came into fashion and my mother decided to throw out all the old toys. I barely saved it, but there are only a few of these left at home, I post them for your judgment.
As a child, my sister and I had a favorite fun for the new year: one thought of some kind of toy, and the second asked leading questions about it and tried to guess what kind of toy she had in mind ...
Now, of course, it seems like a funny game, but then it was very interesting, because the Christmas trees were always set big, under the ceiling and you really had to look for toys on it (c) Pass.
26. "Call me pani, kiss my fingers" - the words of Veronica Dolina come to mind when I listen to my grandmother's story about her short and tender romance with a Polish man who bears the funny name Leszek.
It was somewhere in a small town, I think it was Biala Podlaska. Granny, with a vague smile on her face, recalls how, before the celebration of Catholic Christmas, he, blushing with embarrassment, said to her for the first time privately, "Dobe's Day, ma'am", kissed her hand and held out a small bouquet made in the form of a Christmas tree decoration.
“What a wonderful Polish tradition it is - kissing women's hands! What a pity that our men have forgotten how to do it!” she sighs. I know that my grandmother keeps the memories of this novel in the most secret corners of her heart and does not tell anyone but me about them.
But every time, on New Year's Eve, she takes this bouquet out of a large box and hangs it on the Christmas tree. She looks at me and we smile at each other. (c) ladyspeed.
27. This sweet New Year's toy was given to me by my godmother 11 years ago! It was terribly cold outside, and my godmother and I were returning from the park, where we rode ice slides and made snowmen!
Very strange, but in 20-degree frost I really wanted ice cream! I begged my godmother for a long time to buy me "Icicles", but she did not! I started crying! And then the godmother gave me this toy, which she bought in the subway passage! I was very happy! (c) Ina-S.
29. Grandma's legacy. (c) rina-1983.
We remember and nostalgic.
If somewhere in the depths of the mezzanine you have boxes with old Christmas tree decorations, then it's time to get it. Firstly, these toys will certainly make you nostalgic and cheer you up. And secondly, designers recommend such decorations for the Christmas tree as one of the most fashionable this year. The increased demand for them arose about 4 years ago and since then such toys have risen in price by 10 times.
Cardboard jewelry
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Thin and almost weightless, the very first Christmas decorations that were produced in the post-war period. Toys in the form of animals and children were especially popular. Despite its considerable age, many people still keep such jewelry. And although these toys are among the simplest, they still look great.
Jewelry made of wire and beads
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Became popular in the late 40s. They were toys of the most diverse forms, consisting of glass rods and beads strung on a wire. And glass beads, which were hung on the Christmas tree, also came into fashion. In those days, there was no rain and tinsel, but such beads definitely looked no worse.
Series "Cipollino" on a clothespin
If you have a toy from this series, you can safely consider yourself the owner of a valuable item. Collectors are willing to pay 40,000 rubles or more for a standard set of 16 items, so don't throw them away under any circumstances. Individual copies are also sold, the most expensive of the series is "Signor Tomato", fans are willing to pay 19 thousand for it. But the best option, perhaps, would be to keep these rare things at home, because the memory of childhood can not be bought for any money.
Squirrel
Another old Soviet toy on a clothespin. It belongs to the earliest Christmas decorations of the USSR - such toys in the shape of animals began to be produced back in the 50s. In those days, Christmas decorations were blown and painted by hand, and therefore they are highly valued.
Clock "five to twelve"
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A toy of this form appeared after the cult Soviet film "Carnival Night" by Eldar Ryazanov and instantly won the hearts of Soviet citizens. And no wonder - such decoration is very symbolic, but it looks cute and sincere.
Cone
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Such toys in the form of cones powdered with snow appeared back in the 60s and for a very long time were one of the most popular decorations for Christmas trees. It was these cones that became the ancestors of many Christmas tree decorations from the times of the USSR.
icicles
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These Christmas decorations are strongly associated with winter, and their elegant elongated shape will perfectly decorate any fluffy beauty. Icicles appeared in the mid-60s and have since settled in every home. Of various shapes and colors, powdered with snow and shiny, they, no doubt, can delight you for many more years.
balls
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The most popular shape for Christmas decorations. Having appeared on the shelves, the balls quickly became the leaders in sales, and remain so to this day. But, you see, Soviet balloons are significantly different from modern ones. Family, cozy and simpler than modern elegant, but at the same time completely impersonal decorations.
Christmas tree tops
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An indispensable attribute of the New Year tree in every Soviet apartment. How could you imagine a Christmas tree without this final touch? Such tops were produced in a wide variety of shapes and colors, but most often they were silver. Later, such tops were replaced by a twinkling red star.
houses
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Another very popular Christmas tree toy in the Soviet Union. Multi-colored houses appeared in the 80s and were produced in huge quantities. These toys are not rare, but, without a doubt, they are one of the most recognizable and cozy Soviet Christmas toys.